UC-NRLI 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


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NKLIN 


PRIVY  COUNCIL, 


IAPEL,  LONDON,  1774, 


IHALP    OP    THE 


MASSACHUSETTS, 


L  OF  HUTCHINSON  AND  OLIVER. 


LDELPHIA  : 

T  JOHN  M.  BUTLER, 

ISTNtTT    STREET. 

1860. 


FRANKLIN 


BEFORE  THE   PRIVY  COUNCIL, 


WHITE  HALL  CHAPEL,  LONDON,  1774, 


ON   BEHALF    OP    THE 


PROVINCE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS, 


TO  ADVOCATE  THE  REMOVAL  OF  HUTCHINSON  AND  OLIVER. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 
PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  M.  BUTLER, 

242  CHESTNUT    STRKET. 

1860. 


Entered  according  to  tli«  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S59   bv 

JOHN  M.  BTJTLKK, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsylvania. 


STEREOTYPED  BY 

JESPER  HARDING   &    SON, 

INQUIRER   BUILDING),  SOUTH    TFIIRD    STREET,    PHILADELPHIA. 


INTBODUCTION, 


FRANKLIN  BEFORE  THE  LORDS  IN  COUNCIL 

IN    RELATION    TO   THK    HuTCHINSON    AND    OLIVER    CORRESPONDENCE. 

IN  Bancroft's  history  of  the  United  States  we  have  a  graphic  de 
scription  of  this  striking  scene,  arising  from  one  of  the  most  im 
portant  of  Franklin's  official  transactions  with  his  country;  and 
which  greatly  accelerated  the  course  of  events  resulting  in  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  Colonies. 

In  1773,  Franklin  was  residing  in  London  as  commissioner  for  the 
Colonies  of  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania,  and  also  of  New  Jersey 
and  Georgia  ;  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  certain  letters  written  by 
Governor  Hutchinson  and  Lieutenant  Governor  Oliver,  of  the 
province  of  Massachusetts,  to  persons  in  power  and  office  in  England, 
calling  for  suppressive  measures,  and  advising  action  detrimental  to 
the  interest  of  the  colonies  ;  and  subsequently  obtaining  possession  of 
the  letters,  he  transmitted  copies  of  them  to  the  Speaker  of  the  As 
sembly  of  Massachusetts ;  at  the  same  time  calling  attention  to  the 
insidious  character  of  the  documents,  and  the  unfaithful  character 
of  their  public  officers.  The  perusal  of  these  letters  excited  the 
greatest  indignation.  The  House  of  Representatives  respectfully 
petitioned  his  Majesty  for  the  removal  of  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant 
Governor;  charging  them  with  betraying  their  trust,  and  the  people 
they  governed ;  and  with  giving  private,  partial,  and  false  information 
to  those  in  power.  They  also  declared  them  enemies  to  the  colonies, 
and  prayed  for  their  speedy  removal  from  office. 

It  was  upon  this  question  that  Franklin  came  before  the  Council, 
assisted  by  John  Dunning  and  John  Lee,  to  advocate  the  removal  of 
Hutchinson  and  Oliver.  It  was  the  general  opinion  in  America,  that 

(iii) 


IV  INTRODUCTION. 

Hutchinson  ought,  to  be  superseded.  Wedderburn,  the  Solicitor 
General,  who  appeared  in  behalf  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver,  changed 
the  issue  as  if  Franklin  were  on  trial;  and  in  a  speech,  replete  with 
falsehood  and  invective,  charged  him  with  the  vilest  conduct  in  ob 
taining  and  using  the  letters.  This  infamous  speech  was  received 
with  cheers  and  laughter  by  the  Lords  in  council,  who  regarded  it  ;is 
a  triumph  over  the  venerable  Franklin  and  the  cause  he  advocated. 
It  is  the  narrative  of  this  extraordinary  scene  that  forms  the  chapter 
in  Bancroft's  history,  entitled  "  The  King  in  Council  insults  the  great 
American  Plebeian." 

An  event  having  so  direct  an  influence  on  the  future  of  the  country, 
and  which  may  be  said  to  have  fully  awakened  the  spirit  of  liberty, 
cannot  fail  to  be  appreciated  at  the  present  time.  In  the  splendid 
engraving  of  this  subject  which  this  volume  accompanies,  the  histo 
rical  importance  and  truthfulness  of  the  event,  together  with  the  in 
trinsic  qualities  of  the  work, — having  been  produced  by  a  combination 
of  talent  never  before  employed  on  any  similar  publication, — must 
commend  it  as  a  work  of  great  value  to  the  American  public. 

This  magnificent  picture  is  one  of  the  largest  ever  published  in 
the  country.  It  is  engraved  on  steel ;  and  beautifully  finished  in  a 
superb  style  of  line  and 'stipple; — mezzotinto  being  entirely  rejected. 
It  is  forty  inches  by  twenty-seven  in  size,  and  contains  over  sixty 
figures  ;  comprising  the  members  of  the  Council,  and  a  number  of  the 
most  distinguished  characters  of  the  day.  Among  the  most  con 
spicuous  are  Edmund  Burke,  Dr.  Priestley,  and  Jeremy  Bentham,  and 
other  personal  friends  of  Franklin,  who  were  at  his  side  during  the 
trying  scene. 

The  portraits  of  the  members  of  the  Council,  and  the  distinguished 
persons  present  are  perfectly  reliable.  Many  of  them  have  never  be 
fore  been  published;  and  were  obtained  especially  for  this  work 
from  drawings  and  paintings  remaining  in  the  possession  of  their 
families.  Several  years  were  devoted  to  procuring  them,  through  the 
exertions  of  competent  agents  in  London,  nnd  at  nn  expense  greater 
than  is  usually  incurred  for  the  full  completion  of  meretricious  en- 
gravings,  which  are  frequently  published  in  this  country  as  works  of 
art.  The  interior  of  the  hall,  with  its  furniture  and  decorations,  is 
perfectly  accurate  in  nil  its  details. 

The  engraving  is  from  a  magnificent  painting  in  oil,  by  C.  Schuessele, 
of  Philadelphia,  seven  feet  by  fivo  in  size,  which,  for  masterly 
grouping,  splendid  arrangement  of  effect  and  color,  and  perfect  accu 
racy  of  portraiture  and  costume,  is  universally  conceded  to  be  one 


INTRODUCTION  V 

of  the  finest    national   pictures   in   the  country:    and  has  excited  the 
greatest  attention  wherever  exhibited. 

The  entire  work  has  been  over  eight  years  in  preparation,  and  the 
best  talent  in  the  country  employed  in  every  department,  that  its 
intrinsic  qualities  as  a  work  of  art  may  be  commensurate  with  its 
national  and  historical  importance.  It  is  confidently  hoped  that  its 
publication  will  inaugurate  an  era  in  American  art,  when  the  efforts 
of  our  native  artists  will  be  produced  in  a  style  to  meet  the  growing 
taste  and  refinement  of  the  people,  and  vie  with  the  best  productions 
of  the  European  masters. 

The  volume  which  accompanies  the  engraving  is  published  exclu 
sively  for  subscribers.  It  contains  the  splendid  chapter  from  Ban 
croft's  History  of  the  United  States  descriptive  of  the  event  forming 
the  subject  of  the  picture ;  and  the  entire  correspondence  of  Hutch- 
inson  and  Oliver.  The  correspondence  is  from  a  volume  which  is  now 
entirely  out  of  print;  and  so  extremely  rare  that  it  is  difficult  to  find 
even  in  the  largest  and  most  complete  libraries  in  the  country.  It  is  in 
itself  an  important  historical  work,  and  a  valuable  addition  to  the 
picture. 

The  Engraving  and  Book  can  only  be  obtained  by  subscription  ; 
and  through  the  authorized  agents  of  the  publisher.  In  no  event 
will  it  be  on  sale  at  the  print  or  book  stores. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

THE  KING   IN   COUNCIL   INSULTS    THE   GREAT   AMERICAN 

PLEBEIAN,       ......        3 

LETTERS  OF  HUTCHINSON  AND  OLIVER,       .  .  .17 

REMARKS  IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  FOREGOING  LETTERS,          .       52 

PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  MAS 
SACHUSETTS  BAY,       .  .  .  .  .67 

THE   SPEECH   OF   THE  RIGHT   HONORABLE  THE   EARL  OF 

CHATHAM,  &c.,  .  .  .  .  .122 

(i) 


THE  KING  IN  COUNCIL  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN. 

THE  just  man  covered  with  the  opprobrium  of  crime 
and  meriting  all  the  honors  of  virtue,  is  the  sublimest 
spectacle  that  can  appear  on  earth.  Against  Franklin 
were  arrayed  the  Court,  the  Ministry,  the  Parliament, 
and  an  all-pervading  social  influence;  but  he  only  assumed 
a  firmer  demeanor  and  a  loftier  tone.  On  delivering  to 
Lord  Dartmouth  the  Address  to  the  King  for  the  removal 
of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver,  he  gave  assurances,  that  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  aimed  at  no  novelties ;  that, 
"  having  lately  discovered  the  authors  of  their  grievances 
to  be  some  of  their  own  people,  their  resentment  against 
Britain  was  thence  much  abated."  The  Secretary  pro 
mised  at  once  to  lay  the  Petition  before  the  King,  and 
expressed  his  "pleasure"  at  the  communication,  as  well 
as  his  "  earnest  hope"  for  the  restoration  "  of  the  most 
perfect  tranquillity  and  happiness."  It  had  been  the  un 
questionable  duty  of  the  Agent  of  the  Province  to  com 
municate  proof  that  Hutchinson  and  Oliver  were  conspir 
ing  against  its  Constitution ;  to  bring  censure  on  the  act, 
it  was  necessary  to  raise  a  belief  that  the  evidence  had 
been  surreptitiously  obtained.  To  that  end  Hutchinson 
was  unwearied  in  his  entreaties  ;  but  William  Whately, 
the  Banker,  who  was  his  brother's  executor,  was  per- 


4         THE    KING    INSULTS    THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN. 

suaded  that  the  letters  in  question  had  never  been  in   his 
hands,  and  refused  to  cast  imputations  on  any  one. 

The  newspaper  Press  was  therefore  emploj^ed  to  spread 
a  rumor  that  they  had  been  dishonestly  obtained  through 
John  Temple.  The  anonymous  calumny  which  was  at 
tributed  to  Bernard,  Knox,  and  Mauduit,  was  denied  by 
one  calling  himself  "a  Member  of  Parliament,"  who  also 
truly  affirmed,  that  the  letters  which  were  sent  to  Boston 
had  never  been  in  the  executor's  hands.  Again  the  Press 
declared,  what  was  also  true,  that  Whately,  the  executor, 
had  submitted  files  of  his  brother's  letters  to  Temple's 
examination,  who,  it  was  insinuated,  had  seized  the  op 
portunity  to  purloin  them.  Temple  repelled  the  charge 
instantly  and  successfully.  Whately,  the  executor,  never 
made  a  suggestion  that  the  letters  had  been  taken  away 
by  Temple,  and  always  believed  the  contrary  ;  but  swayed 
not  so  much  by  the  solicitations  of  Hutchinson  and  Mau 
duit,  as  by  his  sudden  appointment  as  a  banker  to  the 
Treasury,  he  published  an  evasive  card,  in  which  he  did 
not  relieve  Temple  from  the  implication. 

A  duel  followed  between  Temple  and  Whately,  without 
witnesses ;  then  newspaper  altercations  on  the  incidents 
of  the  meeting ;  till  another  duel  seemed  likely  to  ensue. 
Gushing,  the  timid  Speaker  of  the  Massachusetts  Assem 
bly,  to  whom  the  letters  had  been  officially  transmitted, 
begged  that  he  might  not  be  known  as  having  received 
them,  lest  it  should  be  "  a  damage"  to  him;  the  Member 
of  Parliament,  who  had  had  them  in  his  possession,  never 
permitted  himself  to  be  named  ;  Temple,  who  risked 
offices  producing  a  thousand  pounds  a  year,  publicly  de 
nied  "  any  concern  in  procuring  or  transmitting  them." 
To  prevent  bloodshed,  Franklin  assumed  the  undivided 


THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN.  5 

responsibility,  from  which  every  one  else  was  disposed  to 
shrink.  "  I,"  said  he,  "  I  alone  am  the  person  who  ob 
tained  and  transmitted  to  Boston  the  letters  in  question." 
His  ingenuousness  exposed  him  to  "  unmerited  abuse"  in 
every  company  and  in  every  newspaper,  and  gave  his 
enemies  an  opening  to  reject  publicly  the  Petition;  which 
otherwise  would  have  been  dismissed  without  parade. 

On  Tuesday  the  eleventh  of  January,  Franklin  for 
Massachusetts,  and  Mauduit,  with  Wedderburn,  for  Hutch- 
inson  and  Oliver,  appeared  before  the  Privy  Council.  "I 
thought,"  said  Franklin,  "  that  this  had  been  a  matter  of 
politics,  and  not  of  law,  and  have  not  brought  any  coun 
sel."  The  hearing  was,  therefore,  adjourned  to  Saturday 
the  twenty -ninth.  Meantime  the  Ministry  and  the  cour 
tiers  expressed  their  rage  against  him  ;  and  talked  of  his 
dismissal  from  office,  of  his  arrest,  and  imprisonment  at 
Newgate  ;  of  a  search  among  his  papers  for  proofs  of 
Treason  ;  while  Wedderburn  openly  professed  the  inten 
tion  to  inveigh  personally  against  him.  He  was  also 
harassed  with  a  subpoena  from  the  Chancellor,  to  attend 
his  Court  at  the  suit  of  William  Whately,  respecting  the 
letters. 

The  public  sentiment  was,  moreover,  embittered  by 
accounts  that  the  Americans  would  not  suffer  the  landing 
of  the  tea.  The  zeal  of  the  Colonists  was  unabated. 
On  New  Year's  eve,  a  half  chest  of  tea,  picked  up  in 
Hoxbury,  was  burned  on  Boston  Common  ;  on  the  twen 
tieth,  three  barrels  of  Bohea  tea  were  burned  in  State 
Street.  On  the  twenty-fifth,  John  Malcolm,  a  North 
Briton,  who  had  been  aid  to  Gov.  Tryon  in  his  war  against 
the  Regulators,  and  was  now  a  preventive  officer  in  the 
Customs,  having  indiscreetly  provoked  the  populace,  was 


6  THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN. 

seized,  tarred  and  feathered,  and  paraded  under  the  gal 
lows. 

The  General  Court  also  assembled,  full  of  a  determina 
tion  to  compel  the  Judges  to  refuse  the  salaries  proffered 
by  the  King.  Enough  of  the  prevalence  of  this  spirit 
was  known  in  England,  to  raise  a  greater  clamor  against 
the  Americans,  than  had  ever  before  existed.  Hypocrites, 
traitors,  rebels,  and  villains,  were  the  softest  epithets  ap 
plied  to  them  ;  and  some  menaced  war,  and  would  have 
given  full  scope  to  sanguinary  rancor.  On  the  twenty- 
seventh,  the  Government  received  official  information, 
that  the  people  of  Boston  had  thrown  the  tea  overboard, 
and  this  event  swelled  the  anger  against  the  Americans. 

In  this  state  of  public  feeling,  Franklin,  on  the  twenty- 
ninth,  assisted  by  Dunning  and  John  Lee,  came  before 
the  Privy  Council,  to  advocate  the  removal  of  Hutchin- 
son  and  Oliver,  in  whose  behalf  appeared  Israel  Mauduit, 
the  old  adviser  of  the  Stamp  Tax;  and  Wedderburn, 
the  Solicitor  General.  It  was  a  day  of  great  expectation. 
Thirty-five  Lords  of  the  Council  were  present ;  a  larger 
number  than  had  ever  attended  a  hearing  ;  and  the  room 
was  filled  with  a  crowded  audience,  among  whom  were 
Priestley,  Jeremy  Bentham,  and  Edmund  Burke. 

The  Petition  and  accompanying  papers  having  been 
read,  Dunning  asked  on  the  part  of  his  clients  the  reason 
of  his  being  ordered  to  attend.  "  No  cause,"  said  he, 
"  is  instituted  ;  nor  do  we  think  advocates  necessary; 
nor  are  they  demanded  on  the  part  of  the  Colony.  The 
Petition  is  not  in  the  nature  of  accusation,  but  of  advice 
and  request.  It  is  an  Address  to  the  King's  wisdom,  not 
an  application  for  criminal  justice  ;  when  referred  to  the 
Council,  it  is  a  matter  for  political  prudence,  not  for  judi- 


THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN.  7 

cial  determination.  The  matter,  therefore,  rests  wholly 
in  your  Lordship's  opinion  of  the  propriety  or  impro 
priety  of  continuing  persons  in  authority,  who  are  repre 
sented  by  legal  bodies,  competent  to  such  representation, 
as  having  (whether  on  sufficient  or  insufficient  grounds) 
entirely  forfeited  the  confidence  of  the  Assemblies  whom 
they  were  to  act  with,  and  of  the  people  whom  they  were 
to  govern.  The  resolutions  on  which  that  representation 
is  founded,  lie  before  your  Lordships,  together  with  the 
letters  from  which  they  arose. 

"  Jf  your  Lordships  should  think  that  these  actions, 
which  appear  to  the  Colony  Representative  to  be  faulty, 
ought  in  other  places  to  appear  meritorious,  the  Petition 
has  not  desired  that  the  parties  should  be  punished  as 
criminals  for  these  actions  of  supposed  merit ;  nor  even 
that  they  may  not  be  rewarded.  It  only  requests  that 
these  gentlemen  may  be  removed  to  places  where  such 
merits  are  better  understood,  and  such  rewards  may  be 
more  approved."  He  spoke  well,  and  was  seconded  by 
Lee. 

The  question  as  presented  by  Dunning,  was  already 
decided  in  favor  of  the  Petitioners ;  it  was  the  universal 
opinion  that  Hutchinson  ought  to  be  superseded.  Wed- 
derburn  changed  the  issue,  as  if  Franklin  were  on  trial ; 
and  in  a  speech  which  was  a  continued  tissue  of  falsehood 
and  ribaldry,  turned  his  invective  against  the  Petitioners 
and  their  Messenger.  Of  all  men,  Franklin  was  the  most 
important  in  any  attempt  at  conciliation.  He  was  the 
Agent  of  the  two  great  Colonies  of  Massachusetts  and 
Pennsylvania,  and  also  of  New  Jersey  and  Georgia ;  was 
the  friend  of  Edmund  Burke,  who  was  agent  for  New 
York.  All  the  troubles  in  British  colonial  policy  had 


THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN. 

grown  out  of  the  neglect  of  his  advice,  and  there  was  no 
one  who  could  have  mediated  like  him  between  the  Me 
tropolis  and  the  Americans.     He    was  now  thrice  vene 
rable,  from  genius,  fame  in  the  world  of  science,  and  age, 
being  already  nearly  threescore  years  and  ten.     This  man 
Wedderburn,  turning  from  the  real  question,  employed  all 
the  cunning  powers  of  distortion  and  misrepresentation 
to   abuse.     With  an  absurdity  of  application  which  the 
Lords  of  the  Privy  Council  were  too  much  prejudiced  to 
observe,  he  drew  a  parallel  between   Boston  and  Capri, 
Hutchinson  and  Sejanus,  the  humble  Petition  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Assembly,  and  a  verbose  and  grand  epistle  of 
the  Emperor  Tiberius.     Franklin,  whose  character  was 
most  benign,  and  who,  from  obvious  motives  of  mercy, 
had  assumed  the  sole  responsibility  of  obtaining  the  let 
ters,  he   described   as  a  person  of  the  most    deliberate 
malevolence,  realizing  in  life  what  poetic  fiction  only  had 
penned  for  the  breast  of  a  bloody  African.     The  speech 
of  Hutchinson,  challenging  a  discussion  of  the  Supremacy 
of  Parliament,  had  been  not  only  condemned  by  public 
opinion  in  England,  but  disapproved  by  the  Secretary  of 
State ;  Wedderburn    pronounced    it    u  a    masterly  one," 
which  had  "  stunned  the  faction."     Franklin,  for  twenty 
years  had  exerted  his  wonderful  powers  as  the  great  con 
ciliator,  had  never  once  employed  the  American  press  to 
alarm  the  American  people,  but  had  sought  to  prevent 
the  Parliamentary  taxation  of  America,  by  private  and 
successful  remonstrance  during  the  time  of  the  Pelhams  ; 
by  seasonable  remonstrance  with  Grenville  against  the 
Stamp  Act ;  by  honest  and  true  answers  to  the  inquiries 
of  the  House    of  Commons  ;  by   the   best  of  advice  to 
Shelburne.     When  sycophants  sought  by  flattery  to  mis- 


THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN.  9 

lead  the  Minister  for  America,  he  had  given  correct  in- 
formation  and   safe  counsel  to  the  Ministry  of  Grafton, 
and  repeated  it  emphatically,  and  in  writing,  to  the  Min 
istry  of  North  ;    but  Wedderburn  stigmatized   this   wise 
and    hearty  lover  of   both   countries    as   "a  true  incen 
diary."     The  letters  which  had  been   written   by   public 
men,  in  public  offices,  on  public  affairs,  to  one  who  formed, 
an  integral  part  of  the  body  that  had  been  declared  to 
possess   absolute    power  over  America,  and    which    had 
been  written  for  the  purpose  of  producing  a  tyrannical 
exercise  of  that  absolute  power,  he  called  private.     Hutch- 
inson  had  solicited  the  place  held  by  Franklin,  from  which 
Franklin  was  to  be  dismissed  ;  this  fact  was  suppressed, 
and  the  wanton  falsehood  substituted,  that  Franklin  had 
desired   the    Governor's   office,  and    had   basely  planned 
"  his  rival's  overthrow."     Franklin  had  inclosed  the  let 
ters  officially  to  the    Speaker  of  the   Massachusetts  As 
sembly,  without   a  single  injunction  of  secrecy    with  re 
gard  to  the  sender;  Wedderburn  maintained  that  they 
were  sent   anonymously  and  secretly  ;  and  by  an  argu 
ment  founded  on  a  mis-statement,  but  which  he  put  for 
ward  as  irrefragable,  he  pretended  to  convict  Franklin  of 
having  obtained    the   letters  by  fraudulent  and  corrupt 
means,  or  of  having  stolen  them   from  the   person  who 
stole  them. 

The  Lords  of  Council  as  he  spoke,  cheered  him  on  by 
their  laughter  ;  and  the  cry  of  «  Hear  him,  hear  him," 
burst  repeatedly  from  a  body  which  professed  to  be  sit 
ting  in  judgment  as  the  highest  Court  of  Appeal  for  the 
Colonies,  and  yet  encouraged  the  advocate  of  one  of  the 
parties  to  insult  a  public  envoy,  present  only  as  the  per 
son  delivering  the  Petition  of  a  great  and  loyal  Colony. 


10          THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN. 

Meantime  the  gray-haired  Franklin,  whom  Kant,  the 
noblest  philosopher  of  that  aue,  had  called  the  modern 
Prometheus,  stood  conspicuously  erect,  confronting  his 
vilifier  and  the  Privjr  Council,  compelled  to  listen  while 
calumny,  in  the  service  of  lawless  force, 'aimed  a  death 
blow  at  his -honor,  and  his  virtues  called  on  God  and  man 
to  see  how7  unjustly  he  suffered. 

The  reply  of  Dunning,  who  was  very  ill  and  was  fa 
tigued  by  standing  so  long,  could  scarcely  be  heard  ;  and 
that  of  Lee  produced  no  impression.  There  was  but  one 
place  in  England  where  fit  reparation  could  be  made  ;  and 
there  was  but  one  man  who  had  the  eloquence  and  the 
courage  and  the  weight  of  character  to  effect  the  atone 
ment.  For  the  present,  Franklin  must  rely  on  the  ap 
proval  of  the  monitor  within  his  own  breast.  "  I  have 
never  been  so  sensible  of  the  power  of  a  good  conscience," 
said  he  to  Priestly  ;  "  for  if  I  had  not  considered  the 
thing  for  which  I  have  been  so  much  insulted,  as  one  of 
the  best  actions  of  my  life,  and  what  I  should  certainly 
do  again  in  the  same  circumstances,  I  could  not  have  sup 
ported  it."  But  it  was  not  to  him,  it  was  to  the  people 
of  Massachusetts,  and  to  New  England,  and  to  all  Amer 
ica,  that  the  insult  was  offered  through  their  Agent. 

Franklin  and  Wedderburn  parted  ;  the  one  to  spread 
the  celestial  fire  of  freedom  among  men ;  to  make  his 
name  a  cherished  household  word  in  every  nation  of 
Europe ;  and  in  the  beautiful  language  of  Washington, 
"  to  be  venerated  for  benevolence,  to  be  admired  for  talents, 
to  be  esteemed  for  patriotism,  to  be  beloved  for  philan 
thropy  ;"  the  other  childless,  though  twice  wedded,  un- 
beloved,  wrangling  with  the  patron  who  had  impeached 
his  veracity,  busy  only  in  "  getting  every  thing  he  could" 


THE    KING    INSULTS    THE  CHEAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN.       11 

in  the  way  of  titles  and  riches,  as  the  wages  of  corruption. 
Franklin,  when  he  died,  had  nations  for  his  mourners,  and 
the  great  and  the  good  throughout  the  world  as  his  eulo 
gists  ;  when  Wedderburn  died,  there  was  no  man  to 
mourn  ;  no  senate  spoke  his  praise ;  no  poet  embalmed 
his  memory  ;  and  his  King,  hearing  that  he  w,as  certainly 
dead,  said  only,  "  He  has  not  left  a  greater  knave  behind 
him  in  my  dominions."  The  report  of  the  Lords,  which 
had  been  prepared  beforehand,  was  immediately  signed  ; 
and  "  they  went  away,  almost  ready  to  throw  up  their 
hats  for  joy,  as  if  by  the  vehement  Philippic  against  the 
hoary-headed  Franklin,  they  had  obtained  a  triumph." 

And  who  were  the  Lords  of  the  Council,  that  thus 
thought  to  mark  and  brand  the  noblest  representative  of 
free  labor  who  for  many  a  year  had  earned  his  daily  bread 
as  apprentice,  journeyman,  or  mechanic,  and  "knew  the 
heart  of  the  working  man,"  and  felt  for  the  people,  of 
whom  he  remained  one  ?  If  they  who  upon  that  occa 
sion  pretended  to  sit  in  judgment  had  never  come  into 
being,  whom  among  them  all  would  humanity  have 
missed  ?  But  how  would  it  have  suffered  if  Franklin 
had  not  lived  ! 

The  men  in  power  who  on  that  day  sought  to  rob 
Franklin  of  his  good  name,  wounded  him  on  the  next 
in  his  fortunes,  by  turning  him  out  of  his  place  in  the 
British  American  Post  Office.  That  institution  had 
yielded  no  revenue  till  he  organized  it,  and  yielded  none 
after  his  dismissal. 

On  Tuesday,  the  first  of  February,  the  Earl  of  Buck 
inghamshire,  who  had  attended  the  Privy  Council,  went 
to  the  House  of  Lords,  "  to  put  the  Ministry  in  mind 
that  he  was  to  be  bought  by  private  contract."  Moving 


1.2         THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN. 

for  the  Boston  Correspondence,  he  said,  "  The  question  is 
no  longer  about  the  liberty  of  North  America,  but  whether 
we  are  to  be  free  or  slaves  to  our  Colonies.  Franklin  is 
here,  not  as  the  Agent  of  a  Province,  but  as  an  Ambas 
sador  from  the  States  of  America.  His  embassy  to  us  is 
like  nothing  but  that  sent  by  Louis  XIV.  to  the  Republic 
of  Genoa,  commanding  the  doge  to  come  and  appease  the 
Grand  Monarch,  by  prostrating  himself  at  Versailles." 
"  Such  language  is  wild,"  replied  the  Earl  of  Stair. 
"  Humanity,  commercial  policy,  and  the  public  necessities 
dictate  a  very  contrary  one."  "  I  would  not  throw  cold 
water  on  the  noble  Lord's  zeal,"  said  the  good  Lord  Dart 
mouth  ;  as  he  made  the  request  that  farther  despatches 
might  be  waited  for. 

Superior  to  injury,  Franklin,  or,  as  Uockingham  called 
him,  the  "  magnanimous"  "  old  man,"  still  sought  for  con 
ciliation,  and  seizing  the  moment  when  he  was  sure  of  all 
sympathies,  he  wrote  to  his  constituents  to  begin  the 
work,  by  making  compensation  to  the  East  India  Com 
pany  before  any  compulsive  measures  were  thought  of. 
But  events  were  to  proceed  as  they  had  been  ordered. 
Various  measures  were  talked  of  for  altering  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  Government  in  Massachusetts,  and  for  prose 
cuting  individuals.  The  opinion  in  town  was  very  general 
that  America  would  submit ;  that  Government  was  taken 
by  surprise  when  they  repealed  the  Stamp  Act,  and  that 
all  might  be  recovered. 

The  King  was  obstinate,  had  no  one  near  him  to  ex 
plain  the  true  state  of  things  in  America,  and  admitted 
no  misgivings  except  for  not  having  sooner  enforced  the 
claims  of  authority.  On  the  fourth  day  of  February,  he 
consulted  the  American  Commander-in-Chief,  who  had  re- 


THE  KING  INSULTS  THE  GREAT  AMERICAN  PLEBEIAN.          13 

cently  returned  from  New  York.  "  I  am  willing  to  go 
back  at  a  day's  notice,"  said  Gage,  "  if  coercive  measures 
are  adopted.  They  will  be  lions,  while  we  are  lambs ; 
but  if  we  take  the  resolute  part,  they  will  undoubtedly 
prove  very  meek.  Four  regiments  sent  to  Boston  will 
be  sufficient  to  prevent  any  disturbance."  The  King  re 
ceived  these  opinions  as  certainly  true  ;  and  wished  their 
adoption.  He  would  enforce  the  claim  of  authority  at  all 
hazards.  "  All  men,"  said  he,  "  now  feel,  that  the  fatal 
compliance  in  1766  has  increased  the  pretensions  of  the 
Americans  to  absolute  independence."  In  the  letters  of 
Hutchinson,  he  saw  nothing  to  which  the  least  exception 
could  be  taken  ;  and  condemned  the  Address  of  Massa 
chusetts,  of  which  every  word  was  true,  as  the  production 
of  "  falsehood  and  malevolence." 

Accordingly,  on  the  seventh  day  of  February,  in  the 
Court  at  St.  James's,  the  report  of  the  Privy  Council  was 
read,  embodying  the  vile  insinuations  of  Wedderburn; 
and  the  Petition  which  Franklin  had  presented,  and  which 
expressed  the  exact  truth,  was  described  as  formed  on 
false  allegations,  and  was  dismissed  by  the  King  as 
"  groundless,  vexatious,  and  scandalous." — Bancroft's  His 
tory  of  the  United  States. 


THE    LETTERS  OF 

GOVERNOR  HUTCHINSON  AND  LIEUTENANT  GOVERNOR  OLIVER. 
WITH  THE  ASSEMBLY'S  ADDRESS, 

AND    THE    PROCEEDINGS    OF    THE    LORDS'  COMMITTEE  OF  COUNCIL; 
WITH  THE  SPEECH  OF  ME.  WEDDERBURN, 

RELATING    TO    THOSE    LETTERS; 
AND  THE  REPORT  OF  THE  LORDS'  COMMITTEE 

TO  HIS  MAJESTY  IN  COUNCIL; 

AND    THE    SPEECH    OP    THE 

EARL  OF  CHATHAM  ON  AMERICAN  AFFAIRS 


LONDON  : 

PRINTED  FOR  J.  WILKIE, 
AT  71  IN  ST.  PAUL'S  CHURCH- YARD,  1774. 

PHILADELPHIA  : 
RE  PRINTED  BY  JOHN  M.  BUTLER, 

242    CHESTNUT    STREET. 

1860. 

(15) 


LETTEKS,  &C. 


Boston,  June  18,  1768. 

SIR: — As  you  allow  me  the  honor  of  your  correspon 
dence,  I  may  not  omit  acquainting  you  with  so  remark 
able  an  event  as  the  withdraw  of  the  Commissioners  of 
the  Customs,  and  most  of  the  other  officers  under  them, 
from  the  town  on  board  the  Romney,  with  an  intent  to 
remove  from  thence  to  the  castle. 

In  the  evening  of  the  10th,  a  sloop  belonging  to  Mr. 
Hancock,  a  Representative  for  Boston,  and  a  wealthy 
merchant  of  great  influence  over  the  populace,  was  seized 
by  the  Collector  and  Comptroller  for  a  very  notorious 
breach  of  the  acts  of  trade,  and,  after  seizure,  taken  into 
custody  by  the  officer  of  the  Romney  man-of-war,  and 
removed  under  command  of  her  guns.  It  is  pretended 
that  the  removal,  and  not  the  seizure,  incensed  the  people. 
It  seems  not  very  material  which  it  was.  A  mob  was 
immediately  raised,  the  officers  insulted,  bruised,  and 
much  hurt,  and  the  windows  of  some  of  their  houses 
broke  ;  a  boat  belonging  to  the  Collector  burnt  in  triumph, 
and  many  threats  uttered  against  the  Commissioners  and 
their  officers  :  no  notice  being  taken  of  their  extravagance 
in  the  time  of  it,  nor  any  endeavors  by  any  authority, 

3  (  17  ) 


18 

except  the  Governor,  the  next  day,  to  discover  and  punish 
the  offenders;  and  there  being  a  rumor  of  a  higher  mob 
intended  Monday  (the  13th)  in  the  evening,  the  Commis 
sioners,  four  of  them,  thought  themselves  altogether  un 
safe,  being  destitute  of  protection,  and  removed  with  their 
families  to  the  llomney,  and  there  remain  and  hold  their 
board,  and  next  week  intend  to  do  the  same,  and  also 
open  the  custom  house  at  the  castle.  The  Governor 
pressed  the  council  to  assist  him  with  their  advice,  but 
they  declined  and  evaded,  calling  it  a  brush,  or  small  dis 
turbance  by  boys  and  negroes,  not  considering  how  much 
it  must  be  resented  in  England  that  the  officers  of  the 
crown  should  think  themselves  obliged  to  quit  the  place 
of  their  residence,  and  go  on  board  a  King's  ship  for 
safety,  and  all  the  internal  authority  of  the  province  take 
no  notice  of  it.  The  town  of  Boston  have  had  repeated 
meetings,  and  by  their  votes  declared  the  Commissioners 
and  their  officers  a  great  grievance,  and  yesterday  in 
structed  their  Representatives  to  endeavor,  that  enquiry 
should  be  made  by  the  Assembly  whether  any  person  by 
writing  or  in  any  other  way,  had  encouraged  the  sending 
troops  here,  there  being  some  alarming  reports  that  troops 
are  expected,  but  have  not  taken  any  measures  to  dis 
countenance  the  promoters  of  the  late  proceedings  ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  appointed  one  or  more  of  the  actors  or 
abettors  on  a  committee  appointed  to  wait  on  the  Go 
vernor,  and  to  desire  him  to  order  the  man-of-war  out  of 
the  harbor. 

Ignorant  as  they  be,  yet  the  heads  of  a  Boston  town- 
meeting  influence  all  public  measures. 

It  is  not  possible  this  anarchy  should  last  always.  Mr. 
Ilallowell,  who  will  be  the  bearer  of  this,  tells  me  he  has 


&c.  19 

the  honor  of  being  personally  known  to  you.     I  beg  leave 
to  refer  you  to  him  for  a  more  full  account. 
I  am,  with  great  esteem,  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  and  obedient  servant, 

THO.  HUTCHINSON. 


Boston,  August,  1768. 

SIR  : — It  is  very  necessary  other  information  should 
be  had  in  England  of  the  present  state  of  the  commission 
ers  of  the  customs  than  what  common  fame  will  bring  to 
you,  or  what  you  will  receive  from  most  of  the  letters 
which  go  from  hence,  people  in  general  being  prejudiced 
by  many  false  reports  and  misrepresentations  concerning 
them.  Seven-eighths  of  the  people  of  the  country  sup 
pose  the  board  itself  to  be  unconstitutional,  and  cannot 
be  undeceived  and  brought  to  believe  that  a  board  has 
existed  in  England  all  this  century,  and  that  the  board 
established  here  has  no  new  powers  given  to  it.  Our  in 
cendiaries  know  it,  but  they  industriously  and  very  wick 
edly  publish  the  contrary.  As  much  pains  have  been 
taken  to  prejudice  the  country  against  the  persons  of  the 
Commissioners,  and  their  characters  have  been  misrepre 
sented  and  cruelly  treated,  especially  since  their  confine 
ment  at  the  castle,  where  they  are  not  so  likely  to  hear 
what  is  said  of  them,  and  are  not  so  able  to  confute  it. 

It  is  now  pretended  they  need  not  to  have  withdrawn, 
that  Mr.  Williams  had  stood  his  ground  without  any  in 
jury,  although  the  mob  beset  his  house,  &c.  There 
never  was  that  spirit  raised  against  the  under  officers  as 
against  the  Commissioners,  I  mean  four  of  them.  They 
had  a  public  affront  offered  them  by  the  town  of  Boston, 


20  LETTERS,    &C. 

who  refused  to  give  the  use  of  their  hall  for  a  public  din 
ner,  unless  it  was  stipulated  that  the  Commissioners 
should  not  be  invited.  An  affront  of  the  same  nature  at 
the  motion  of  Mr.  Hancock  was  offered  by  a  company  of 
cadets.  Soon  after  a  vessel  of  Mr.  Hancock's  being 
seized,  the  officers  were  mobbed,  and  the  Commissioners 
were  informed  they  were  threatened.  1  own  I  was  in 
pain  for  them.  I  do  not  believe  if  the  mob  had  seized 
them,  there  was  any  authority  able  and  willing  to  have 
rescued  them.  After  they  had  withdrawn,  the  town  sig 
nified  to  the  Governor  by  a  message  that  it  was  expected 
or  desired  they  should  not  return.  It  was  then  the 
general  voice  that  it  would  not  be  safe  for  them  to  return. 
After  all  this,  the  sons  of  liberty  say  they  deserted  or 
abdicated. 

The  other  officers  of  the  customs  in  general  either  did 
not  leave  the  town,  or  soon  returned  to  it.  Some  of  them 
seem  to  be  discontented  with  the  Commissioners.  Great 
pains  have  been  taken  to  increase  the  discontent.  Their 
office  by  these  means  is  rendered  extremely  burdensome. 
Every  thing  they  do  is  found  fault  with,  and  yet  no  par 
ticular  illegality  or  even  irregularity  mentioned.  There 
is  too  much  hauteur,  some  of  their  officers  say,  in  the 
treatment  they  receive.  They  say,  they  treat  their  offi 
cers  as  the  Commissioners  treat  their  officers  in  England, 
and  require  no  greater  deference.  After  all,  it  is  not  the 
persons,  but  the  office  of  the  Commissioners  which  has 
raised  this  spirit,  and  the  distinction  made  between  the 
Commissioners,  is  because  it  has  been  given  out  that  four 
of  them  were  in  favor  of  the  new  establishment,  and  the 
fifth  was  not.  If  Mr.  Hallowell  arrived  safe,  he  can  in- 


LETTERS,    &C.  21 

form  you  many  circumstances  relative  to  this  distinction, 
which  I  very  willingly  excuse  myself  from  mention 
ing. 

I  know  of  no  burden  brought  upon  the  fair  trader  by 
the  new  establishment.  The  illicit  trader  finds  the  risk 
greater  than  it  used  to  be,  especially  in  the  port  where 
the  board  is  constantly  held.  Another  circumstance 
which  increases  the  prejudice  is  this  ;  the  new  duties 
happened  to  take  place  just  about  the  time  the  Commis 
sioners  arrived.  People  have  absurdly  connected  the 
duties  and  Board  of  Commissioners,  and  suppose  we 
should  have  had  no  additional  duties,  if  there  had  been 
no  Board  to  have  the  charge  of  collecting  them.  With 
all  the  aid  you  can  give  to  the  officers  of  the  crown,  they 
will  have  enough  to  do  to  maintain  the  authority  of 
government,  and  to  carry  the  laws  into  execution.  If 
they  are  discountenanced,  neglected,  or  fail  of  support 
from  you,  they  must  submit  to  every  thing  the  present 
opposers  of  government  think  fit  to  require  of  them. 

There  is  no  office  under  greater  discouragements  than 
that  of  the  Commissioners.  Some  of  my  friends  recom 
mended  me  to  the  ministry.  I  think  myself  very  happy 
that  I  am  not  one.  Indeed  it  would  have  been  incom 
patible  with  my  post  as  chief  justice,  and  I  must  have 
declined  it.  and  I  should  do  it,  although  no  greater  salary 
had  been  affixed  to  the  chief  justice's  place,  than  the 
small  pittance  allowed  by  the  province. 

From  my  acquaintance  with  the  Commissioners  I  have 
conceived  a,  personal  esteem  for  them,  but  my  chief  in 
ducement  to  make  this  representation  to  you,  is  a  regard 


22  LETTERS,    &C. 

to  the  public  interest,  which  I  am  sure  will  suffer  if  the 
opposition  carry  their  point  against  them. 
I  am,  with  very  great  esteem,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

THO.  HUTCHINSON. 

August  10.  Yesterday  at  a  meeting  of  the  merchants, 
it  was  agreed  by  all  present  to  give  no  more  orders  for 
goods  from  England,  nor  receive  any  on  commission  until 
the  late  acts  are  repealed.  And  it  is  said  all  except  six 
teen  in  the  town  have  subscribed  an  engagement  to  that 
tenor.  I  hope  the  subscription  will  be  printed,  that  I 
may  transmit  it  to  you. 


Boston,  October  4,  1768. 

DEAR  SIR  : — I  was  absent  upon  one  of  our  circuits  when 
Mr.  Byles  arrived.  Since  my  return,  I  have  received 
from  him  your  obliging  letter  of  31st  July.  I  never 
dared  to  think  what  the  resentment  of  the  nation  would 
be  upon  HalloweH's  arrival.  It  is  not  strange  that  mea 
sures  should  be  immediately  taken  to  reduce  the  colonies 
to  their  former  state  of  government  and  order,  but  that 
the  national  funds  should  be  affected  by  it,  is  to  me  a 
little  mysterious  and  surprising.  Principles  of  govern 
ment  absurd  enough  spread  through  all  the  colonies ;  but 
I  cannot  think  that  in  any  colony,  people  of  any  consid 
eration  have  ever  been  so  mad  as  to  think  of  a  revolt. 
Many  of  the  common  people  have  been  in  a  frenzy,  and 
talked  of  dying  in  defence  of  their  liberties,  and  have 
spoke  and  printed  what  is  highly  criminal,  and  too  many 
of  rank  above  the  vulgar,  and  some  in  public  posts  have 


LETTERS,    &C.  23 

countenanced  and  encouraged  them,  until  they  increased 
so  much  in  their  numbers,  and  in  their  opinion  of  their 
importance,  as  to  submit  to  government  no  further  than 
they  thought  proper.  The  legislative  powers  have  been 
influenced  by  them,  and  the  executive  powers  entirely 
lost  their  force.  There  has  been  continual  danger  of  mobs 
arid  insurrections,  but  they  would  have  spent  all  their 
force  within  ourselves,  the  officers  of  the  crown,  and  some 
of  the  few  friends  who  dared  to  stand  by  them,  possibly 
might  have  been  knocked  on  the  head,  and  some  such 
fatal  event  would  probably  have  brought  the  people  to 
their  senses.  For  four  or  five  weeks  past  the  distemper 
has  been  growing,  and  I  confess  I  have  not  been  without 
some  apprehensions  for  myself,  but  my  friends  have  had 
more  for  me ;  and  I  have  heard  repeated  and  frequent 
notices  from  them  from  different  quarters,  one  of  the  last 
I  will  inclose  to  you.*  In  this  state  of  things,  there  was 
no  security,  but  quitting  my  posts,  which  nothing  but  the 
last  extremity  would  justify.  As  Chief  Justice,  for  two 
years  after  our  first  disorders,  I  kept  the  grand  juries 
tolerably  well  to  their  duty.  The  last  spring,  there  had 
been  several  riots,  and  a  most  infamous  libel  had  been 
published  in  one  of  the  papers,  which  I  enlarged  upon, 
and  the  grand  jury  had  determined  to  make  presentments, 
but  the  Attorney-General  not  attending  them  the  first 
day,  Otis  and  his  creatures,  who  were  alarmed  and  fright 
ened,  exerted  themselves  the  next  day,  and  prevailed 
upon  so  many  of  the  jury  to  change  their  voices,  that 
there  was  not  a  sufficient  number  left  to  find  a  bill. 
They  have  been  ever  since  more  enraged  against  me  than 
ever.  At  the  desire  of  the  Governor  I  committed  to  wri- 

*  See  the  following  Letter. 


24  LETTERS,   &C. 

ting  the  charge  while  it  lay  in  my  memory,  and  as  I  have 
no  further  use  for  it,  I  will  inclose  it,  as  it  may  give  you 
some  idea  of  our  judicatories. 

Whilst  we  were  in  this  state,  news  came  of  two  regi 
ments  being  ordered  from  Halifax,  and  soon  after  two 
more  from  Ireland.  The  minds  of  people  were  more  and 
more  agitated,  broad  hints  were  given  that  the  troops 
should  never  land,  a  barrel  of  tar  was  placed  upon  the 
beacon,  in  the  night  to  be  fired,  to  bring  in  the  country, 
when  the  troops  appeared,  and  all  the  authority  of  the 
government  was  not  strong  enough  to  remove  it.  The 
town  of  Boston  met  and  passed  a  number  of  weak,  but 
very  criminal  votes  ;  and  as  the  Governor  declined  calling 
an  Assembly,  they  sent  circular  letters  to  all  the  towns 
and  districts  to  send  a  person  each  that  there  might  be  a 
general  consultation  at  so  extraordinary  a  crisis.  They 
met  and  spent  a  week,  made  themselves  ridiculous,  and 
then  dissolved  themselves,  after  a  message  or  two  to  the 
Governor,  which  he  refused  to  receive ;  a  petition  to  the 
King,  which  I  dare  say  their  agent  will  never  be  allowed 
to  present,  and  a  result  which  they  published  ill-natured 
and  impotent. 

In  this  confusion  the  troops  from  Halifax  arrived.  I 
never  was  much  afraid  of  the  people's  taking  arms,  but 
I  was  apprehensive  of  violence  from  the  mob,  it  being 
their  last  chance  before  the  troops  could  land.  As  the 
prospect  of  revenge  became  more  certain,  their  courage 
abated  in  proportion.  Two  regiments  are  landed,  but  a 
new  grievance  is  now  raised.  The  troops  are  by  act  of  par 
liament  to  be  quartered  no  where  else  but  in  the  barracks, 
until  they  are  full.  There  are  barracks  enough  at  the 
castle  to  hold  both  regiments.  It  is  therefore  against  the 


LETTERS,    &C.  25 

Act   to   bring   any   of  them    into  the    town.      This  was 
started  by  the  Council  in  their  answer  to  the   Governor, 
which,  to  make  themselves  popular,  they  in  an   unprece 
dented  way  published  and  have  alarmed  all  the  province  ; 
for  although  none  but  the  most  contracted   minds  could 
put  such  a  construction  upon  the  act,  yet  after  this  decla 
ration  of  the  Council,  nine-tenths  of  the  people  suppose 
it  just.     I  wish  the  act  had  been  better  expressed,  but  it 
is  absurd  to  suppose  the  parliament  intended  to  take  from 
the  King  the   direction  of  his  forces,  by  confining  them 
to  a  place  where  any  of  the  colonies  might  think  fit   to 
build  barracks.     It  is  besides  ungrateful,  for  it  is  known 
to  many  that  this  provision  was  brought  into  thebillafter 
it  had  been  framed   without  it,  from    mere   favor   to  the 
colonies.     I  hear  the  Commander-in-Chief  has  provided 
barracks  or  quarters,  but  a  doubt  still  remains  with  some 
of  the  Council,  whether  they  are  to  furnish    the   articles 
required,  unless  the  men  are  in  the  province  barracks,  and 
they  are  to  determine  upon  it  to-day. 

The  government  has  been  so  long  in  the  hands  of  the. 
populace,  that  it  must  come  out  of  them  by  degrees,  at 
least  it  will  be  a  work  of  time  to  bring  the  people  back 
to  just  notions  of  the  nature  of  government. 

Mr.  Pepperrell,  a  young  gentleman  of  good  character, 
and  grandson  and  principal  heir  to  the  late  Sir  William 
Pepperrell,  being  bound  to  London,  I  shall  deliver  this 
letter  to  him,  as  it  will  be  too  bulky  for  postage,  and  de 
sire  him  to  wait  upon  you  with  it. 
I  am,  with  very  great  esteem,  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  and  most  obedient  servant, 

Tuo.  HUTCHINSON. 

4 


26  LETTERS,    &C. 

SIR: — The  great  esteem  I  have  for  you  in  every  point 
of  light,    perhaps    renders    my  fears  and  doubts  for  the 
safety  of  your  person   greater  than  they  ought  to  be; 
however  if  that  is  an  error,  it  certainly  results  from  true 
friendship,  naturally  jealous.     Last  night,  I  was  informed 
by  a  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance,  who  had  his  infor 
mation  from  one  intimate  with  and  knowing  to  the  infer 
nal  purposes  of  the  sons  of  liberty,  as  they  falsely  style 
themselves,  that    he  verily    believed,  from    the    terrible 
threats  and  menaces  by  those  Catilines  against  you,  that 
your  life  is  greatly  in  danger.     This  informant,  I  know, 
is  under  obligations  to  you,  and  is  a  man  of  veracity.     He 
expressed  himself  with  concern  for  you,  and  the  gentle 
man  acquainting  me  with  this  horrid  circumstance,  assured 
me  he  was  very  uneasy   till  you  had  notice.     I  should 
have  done  myself  the  honor  of  waiting  on  you,  but  am 
necessarily   prevented.     The   duty  I  owed    to  you  as  a 
friend,  and  to  the  public  as  a  member  of  society,  would 
not  suffer  me  to  rest  till  1  had  put  your  honor  upon  your 
guard  ;  for   though    this  may  be  a  false   alarm,  nothing 
would  have  given  me  greater  pain,  if  any  accident  had 
happened,  and  I  had  been  silent.     If  possible,  I  will  see 
you  to-morrow,  and  let  you  know  further  into  this  black 
affair.     And  am,  with    the  sincerest  friendship  and  re 
spect,  your  Honor's 

Most  obedient,  and  most  humble  servant, 

ROB.  AUCHMUTY. 
To  the  horitte  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Sept.  14,  1768. 


Boston,  Dec.  10,  1768. 
DEAR  SIR  : I  am  just  now  informed  that  a  number  of 


LETTERS,    &C.  27 

the  Council,  perhaps  eight  or  ten,  who  live  in  and  near 
this  town,  have  met  together  and  agreed  upon  a  long  ad 
dress  or  petition  to  Parliament,  and  that  it  will  be  sent 
by  this  ship  to  Mr.  Bollan  to  be  presented.  Mr.  Dan- 
forth,  who  is  President  of  the  Council,  told  the  Governor, 
upon  enquiry,  that  it  was  sent  to  him  to  sign,  and  he  sup 
posed  the  rest  of  the  Council  who  had  met  together, 
would  sign  after  him  in  order  ;  but  he  had  since  found 
that  they  had  wrote  over  his  name,  by  order  of  Council, 
which  makes  it  appear  to  be  an  act  of  Council.  This 
may  be  a  low  piece  of  cunning  in  him,  but  be  it  as  it  may, 
it  is  proper  it  should  be  known,  that  the  whole  is  no  more 
than  the  doings  of  a  part  of  the  Council  only  ;  although 
even  that  is  not  very  material,  since,  if  they  had  all  been 
present,  without  the  Governor's  summons,  the  meeting 
would  have  been  irregular  and  unconstitutional,  and  ought 
to  be  discountenanced  and  censured.  I  suppose  there  is 
no  instance  of  the  Privy  Council's  meeting  and  doing 
business  without  the  King's  presence  or  special  direction, 
except  in  committees  upon  such  business  as  by  his  Ma 
jesty's  order  has  been  referred  to  them  by  an  act  of 
Council ;  and  I  have  no  instance  here  without  the  Go 
vernor,  until  within  three  or  four  months  past. 

I  thought  it  very  necessary  the  circumstances  of  this 
proceeding  should  be  known,  though  if  there  be  no  neces 
sity  for  it,  I  think  it  would  be  best  it  should  not  be  known 
that  the  intelligence  comes  from  me. 

I  am,  with  very  great  regard,  Sir, 

Your  most  humble  and  most  obedient  servant, 

THO.  HUTCHINSON. 


28  LETTERS,    &C. 

Boston,  Jan.  20,  1769. 

DEAR  SIR  : — You  have  laid  me  under  very  great  obli 
gations  by  the  very  clear  and  full  account  of  proceedings 
in  Parliament,  which  I  received  from  you  by  Capt.  Scott. 
You   have   also   done   much   service  to  the  people  of  the 
province.     For  a  day  or  two  after   the  ship   arrived,  the 
enemies  of  government  gave  out  that  their  friends  in  Par 
liament  were  increasing,  and  all  things  would  be  soon  on 
the  old   footing  ;  in   other  words,  that  all    acts   imposing 
duties  would  be  repealed,  the  Commissioners'  board  dis 
solved,  the  customs  put  on  the  old  footing,  and  illicit  trade 
be  carried  on  with  little  or  no  hazard.     It  was  very  fortu 
nate  that  I  had  it  in  my  power  to   prevent  such  a  false 
representation  from  spreading  through  the  province.     I 
have  been  very  cautious  of  using  your  name,  but  I  have 
been  very  free  in  publishing  abroad  the  substance  of  your 
letter,  and  declaring  that  I  had  my  intelligence  from  the 
best  authority,  and  have  in  a  great  measure  defeated  the 
ill  design  in  raising  and  attempting  to  spread  so  ground 
less  a  report.     What  marks  of  resentment  the  Parliament 
will    show,  whether   they  will   be  upon  the  province  in 
general,  or  particular  persons,  is  extremely  uncertain,  but 
that  they  will  be  placed  somewhere  is  most  certain  ;  and 
I  add,  because  I  think  it  ought  to  be  so,  that  those   who 
have  been  most  steady  in  preserving  the  constitution  and 
opposing  the  licentiousness  of   such  as  call    themselves 
Sons  of  Liberty,  will  certainly  meet  with  favor  and  en 
couragement. 

This  is  most  certainly  a  crisis.  I  really  wish  that 
there  may  not  have  been  the  least  degree  of  severity  be 
yond  what  is  absolutely  necessary  to  maintain,  I  think  I 
may  say  to  you,  the  dependance  which  a  colony  ought  to 


LETTERS,    &C.  29 

have  upon  the  present  state  ;  but  if  no  measures  shall 
have  been  taken  to  secure  this  dependance,  or  nothing 
more  than  some  declaratory  acts  or  resolves,  it  is  all  over 
with  us.  The  friends  of  government  will  be  utterly  dis 
heartened,  and  the  friends  of  anarchy  will  be  afraid  of 
nothing,  be  it  ever  so  extravagant. 

The  last  vessel  from  London  had  a  quick  passage.  We 
expect  to  be  in  suspense  for  the  three  or  four  next  weeks, 
and  then  to  hear  our  fate.  I  never  think  of  the  measures 
necessary  for  the  peace  and  good  order  of  the  colonies 
without  pain.  There  must  be  an  abridgment  of  what  are 
called  English  liberties.  I  relieve  myself  by  considering 
that  in  a  remove  from  the  state  of  nature  to  the  most 
perfect  state  of  government,  there  must  be  a  great  re 
straint  of  natural  liberty.  I  doubt  whether  it  is  possible 
to  project  a  system  of  government  in  which  a  colony 
3000  miles  distant  from  the  parent  state  shall  enjoy  all 
the  liberty  of  the  parent  state.  I  am  certain  I  have 
never  yet  seen  the  projection.  I  wish  the  good  of  the 
colony  when  I  wish  to  see  some  further  restraint  of 
liberty,  rather  than  the  connection  with  the  parent  state 
should  be  broken ;  for  I  am  sure  such  a  breach  must 
prove  the  ruin  of  the  colony.  Pardon  me  this  excursion, 
it  really  proceeds  from  the  state  of  mind  into  which  our 
perplexed  affairs  often  throws  me. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  very  great  esteem,  Sir, 
your  most  humble  and  most  obedient  servant, 

THO.  HUTCHINSON. 


Boston,  October  25,  1769. 
DEAR  SIR  : — I  thank  you  for  your  last  favor  of  July 


30  LETTERS,    &C. 

18th.     I  fancy  in  my  last  to  you,  about  two  months  ago, 
I  have  answered  the  greatest  part  of  it. 

My  opinion  upon  the  combination  of  the  merchants,  I 
gave  you  very  fully.     How  long  they  will  be  able  to  con 
tinue  them  if  Parliament  should  not  interpose,  is  uncer 
tain.     In  most  articles  they  may  another  year,  and  you 
run  the  risk  of  their  substituting,  when  they  are  put  to 
their  shifts,  something  of  their  own  in  the  place  of  what 
they  used  to  have  from  you,  and  which  they  will  never 
return  to  you  for.     But  it  is  not  possible   that  provision 
for  dissolving  these  combinations,  and  subjecting  all  who 
do  not  renounce  them  to  penalties  adequate  to  the  offence, 
should  not  be  made  the  first  week  the  parliament  meets. 
Certainly  all  parties  will  unite  in  so  extraordinary  a  case, 
if  they  never  do  in  any  other.     So  much  has  been  said 
upon  the  repeal  of  the  duties  laid  by  the  last  act,  that  it 
will  render  it  very  difficult  to  keep  people's  minds  quiet, 
if  that  should  be  refused  them.     They  deserve  punish 
ment,  you  will  say ;  but  laying  or  continuing  taxes  upon 
all  cannot  be  thought   equal,  seeing   many  will  be    pun 
ished  who  are  not  offenders.     Penalties  of  another  kind 
seem  better  adapted. 

I  have  been  tolerably  treated  since  the  Governor's  de 
parture,  no  other  charge  being  made  against  me  in  our 
scandalous  newspapers,  except  my  bad  principles  in  mat 
ters  of  government;  and  this  charge  has  had  little  effect, 
and  a  great  many  friends  promise  me  support. 

I  must  beg  the  favor  of  you  to  keep  secret  every  thing 
I  write,  until  we  are  in  a  more  settled  state,  for  the  party 
here,  either  by  their  agent,  or  by  some  of  their  emissaries 
in  London,  have  sent  them  every  report  or  rumor  of  the 


LETTERS,    &C.  31 

contents  of  letters  wrote  from    hence.     I  hope  we  shall 
see  better  times  both  here  and  in  England. 
I  am,  with  great  esteem,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

TIIO.  HUTCHINSON. 


Boston,  May  7,  1767. 

SIR: — I  am  indebted  to  you  for  the  obliging  manner 
in  which  you  received  my  recommendation  of  my  good 
friend  Mr.  Paxton,  as  well  as  for  the  account  you  are 
pleased  to  send  me  of  the  situation  of  affairs  in  the 
mother  country. 

I  am  very  sorry  that  the  colonies  give  you  so  much 
employment,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say  how  long  it  will 
be  before  things  settle  into  quiet  among  us.  We  have 
some  here  who  have  been  so  busy  in  fomenting  the  late 
disturbances,  that  they  may  now  think  it  needful  for  their 
own  security  to  keep  up  the  spirit.  ,  They  have  plumed 
themselves  much  upon  the  victory  they  have  gained,  and 
the  support  they  have  since  met  with  ;  nor  could  any 
thing  better  show  what  they  would  still  be  at,  than  the 
manner  in  which,  by  their  own  account  published  in  the 
newspapers  last  August,  they  celebrated  the  14th  of  that 
month,  as  the  first  anniversary  commemoration  of  what 
they  had  done  at  the  tree  of  Liberty  on  that  day  the 
year  before.  Here  a  number  of  respectable  gentlemen, 
as  they  inform  us,  now  met,  and  among  other  toasts  drank 
General  Paoli,  and  the  spark  of  liberty  kindled  in  Spain. 
1  arn  now  speaking  of  a  few  individuals  only,  the  body 
of  the  people  are  well  disposed ;  yet  when  you  come  to 
see  the  journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives  the  last 


32  LETTERS,    &C. 

session,  I  fear  you  will  think  that  the  same  spirit  has 
seized  our  public  counsels.  I  can.  however,  fairly  say 
thus  much  in  behalf  of  the  government,  that  the  last  house 
was  packed  by  means  of  a  public  proscription  just  before 
the  election,  of  the  greatest  part  of  those  who  had  ap 
peared  in  the  preceding  session  in  the  support  of  govern 
ment  :  their  names  were  published  in  an  inflammatory 
newspaper,  and  their  constituents  made  to  believe  they 
were  about  to  sell  them  for  slaves.  Writs  are  now  out 
for  a  new  Assembly,  but  I  cannot  answer  for  the  choice  : 
I  hope,  however,  that  the  people  in  general  are  in  a  better 
temper ;  yet  the  moderate  men  have  been  so  brow-beaten 
in  the  House,  and  found  themselves  so  insignificant  there 
the  last  year,  that  some  of  them  will  voluntarily  decline 
coming  again.  I  think  this  looks  too  much  like  a  despair 
of  the  commonwealth,  and  cannot  be  justified  on  patriotic 
principles. 

The  election  of  Counsellors  was  carried  the  last  year 
as  might  have  been  expected  from  such  an  house.  The 
officers  of  the  crown,  and  the  judges  of  the  superior 
court  were  excluded.  And  I  hear  that  it  is  the  design 
of  some,  who  expect  to  be  returned  members  of  the 
house  this  year,  to  make  sure  work  at  the  ensuing  elec 
tion  of  Counsellors,  by  excluding,  if  they  can,  the  gen 
tlemen  of  the  Council  (who  by  charter  remain  such  till 
others  are  chosen  in  their  room)  from  any  share  in  the 
choice,  though  they  have  always  had  their  voice  in  it 
hitherto  from  the  first  arrival  of  the  charter.  If  the 
house  do  this,  they  will  have  it  in  their  power  to  model 
the  Council  as  they  please,  and  throw  all  the  powers  of 
government  into  the  hands  of  the  people,  unless  the  Go- 


LETTERS,    &C.  33 

vernor  should  again  exert  his  negative  as  he  did  the  last 
year. 

You  have  doubtless  seen  some  of  the  curious  messages 
from  the  late  house  to  the  Governor,  and  can't  hut  have 
observed   with   how  little    decency  they  have    attacked 
both  the  Governor  and  the  Lieutenant  Governor.     They 
have  also  in  effect  forced  the  Council  to  declare  themselves 
parties  in   the  quarrel   they  had   against  the  latter  in  a 
matter  of  mere    indifference.     In  their  message    to  the 
Governor  of  the    21st  of  January,  they  have  explicitly 
charged  the  Lieutenant  Governor  (a  gentleman    to  whom 
they  are  more    indebted    than  to  any  one   man    in  the 
government)  with  "  ambition  and  lust  of  power,"  merely 
for   paying  a  compliment  to  the  Governor  agreeable  to 
ancient  usage,  by  attending  him  to  court,  and   being  pre 
sent  in  the  council-chamber  when  he  made  his  speech  at 
the  opening  of  the  session  ;  at  which  time  they  go  on  to 
say,  "  none  but  the  general  court  and  their  servants  are 
intended  to  be  present,"  still  holding  out  to  the  people 
the  servants  of   the  crown  as  objects  of   insignificance, 
ranking  the  Secretary  with  their  door  keeper,  as  servants 
of  the  Assembly  ;  for  the  Secretary  with  his  clerks  and 
the  door-keeper,  are  the  only  persons  present  with  the 
Assembly  on  these  occasions. 

The  officers  of  the  crown  being  thus  lessened  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people,  takes  off  their  weight  and  influence, 
and  the  balance  will' of  course  turn  in  favor  of  the  people, 
and  what  makes  them  still  more  insignificant  is  their  de- 
pendance  on  the  people  for  a  necessary  support:  If  some 
thing  were  left  to  the  good-will  of  the  people,  yet  nature 
should  be  sure  of  a  support.  The  Governor's  salary  has 
for  about  thirty-five  years  past  been  pretty  well  under- 


34  LETTERS,    &C. 

stood  to  be  £1000  a  year  sterling.  When  this  sum  was 
first  agreed  to,  it  was  very  well ;  but  an  increase  of 
wealth  since  has  brought  along  with  it  an  increase  of 
luxury,  so  that  what  was  sufficient  to  keep  up  a  proper 
distinction  and  support  the  dignity  of  a  Governor  then, 
may  well  be  supposed  to  be  insufficient  for  the  purpose 
now.  The  Lieutenant  Governor  has  no  appointments  as 
such  :  the  Captaincy  of  Castle-William,  which  may  be 
worth  £120  sterling  a  year,  is  looked  upon  indeed  as  an 
appendage  to  his  commission,  and  the  late  Lieutenant 
Governor  enjoyed  no  other  appointment:  he  lived  a  re 
tired  life  upon  his  own  estate  in  the  country,  and  was 
easy.  The  present  Lieutenant  Governor  indeed  has  other 
appointments,  but  the  people  are  quarreling  with  him  for 
it,  and  will  not  suffer  him  to  be  easy  unless  he  will  retire 

also. 

The  Secretary  may  have  something  more  than  £200  a 
year  sterling,  but  has  for  the  two  last  years  been  allowed 
£60  lawful  money  a  year  less  than  had  been  usual  for 
divers  years  preceding,  though  he  had  convinced  the  house 
by  their  Committee,  that  without  this  deduction  he  would 
have  had  no  more  than  £250  sterling  per  annum  in  fees, 
perquisites,  and  salary  altogether,  which  is  not  the  one 
half  of  his  annual  expense. 

The  crown  did  by  charter  reserve  to  itself  the  appoint 
ment  of  a  Governor,  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  Secretary ; 
the  design  of  this  was  without  doubt  to  maintain  some 
kind  of  balance  between  the  powers  of  the  crown  and  of 
the  people  ;  but,  if  officers  are  not  in  some  measure  inde 
pendent  of  the  people  (for  it  is  difficult  to  serve  two  mas 
ters),  they  will  sometimes  have  a  hard  struggle  between 
duty  to  the  crown  and  a  regard  to  self,  which  must  be  a 


LETTERS,    &C.  35 

very  disagreeable  situation  to  them,  as  well  as  a  weaken 
ing  to  the  authority  of  government.  The  officers  of  the 
crown  are  very  few,  and  are  therefore  the  more  easily 
provided  for  without  burdening  the  people  :  and  such 
provision  1  look  upon  as  necessary  to  the  restoration  arid 
support  of  the  King's  authority. 

But  it  may  be  said,  How  can  any  new  measures  be 
taken  without  raising  new  disturbances  ?  The  manufac 
turers  in  England,  will  rise  again  and  defeat  the  measures 
of  government.  This  game,  'tis  true,  has  been  played 
once  and  succeeded,  and  it  has  been  asserted  here,  that 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  colonies  at  any  time  to  raise  a 
rebellion  in  England,  by  refusing  to  send  for  their  manu 
factures. 

For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  believe  this.  The  merchants 
in  England,  and  1  don't  know  but  those  in  London  and 
Bristol  only,  might  always  govern  in  this  matter  and  quiet 
the  manufacturer.  The  merchant's  view  is  always  to  his 
own  interest.  As  the  trade  is  now  managed,  the  dealer 
here  sends  to  the  merchant  in  England  for  his  goods,  upon 
these  goods  the  English  merchant  puts  a  profit  of  10  or 
more,  probably  15  per  cent,  when  he  sends  them  to  his 
employer  in  America.  The  merchant  is  so  jealous  of 
foregoing  this  profit,  that  an  American  trader  cannot  well 
purchase  the  goods  he  wants  of  the  manufacturer ;  for 
should  the  merchant  know  that  the  manufacturer  had 
supplied  an  American,  he  would  take  off  no  more  of  his 
wares.  The  merchants  therefore  having  this  profit  in 
view,  will  by  one  means  or  other  secure  it.  They  know 
the  goods  which  the  American  market  demands,  and  may 
therefore  safely  take  them  off  from  the  manufacturer, 
though  they  should  have  no  orders  for  shipping  them  this 


36  LETTERS,    &C. 

year  or  perhaps  the  next ;  and  I  dare  say,  it  would  not 
be  longer  before  the  Americans  would  clamor  for  a  sup 
ply  of  goods  from  England,  for  it  is  vain  to  think  they 
can  supply  themselves.  The  merchant  might  then  put 
an  advanced  price  upon  his  goods,  and  possibly  be  able 
to  make  his  own  terms  ;  or  if  it  should  be  thought  the 
£0ods  would  not  bear  an  advanced  price  to  indemnify 
him,  it  might  be  worth  while  for  the  government  to  agree 
with  the  merchants  beforehand  to  allow  them  a  premium 
equivalent  to  the  advance  of  their  stock,  and  then  the 
game  would  be  over. 

I  have  wrote  with  freedom,  in  confidence  of  my  name's 
not  being  used  on  the  occasion.  For  though  I  have  wrote 
nothing  but  what  in  my  conscience  I  think  an  American 
may  upon  just  principles  advance,  and  what  a  servant  of 
the  Crown  ought  upon  all  proper  occasions  to  suggest,  yet 
the  many  prejudices  I  have  to  combat  with,  may  render 
it  unfit  it  should  be  made  public. 

I  communicated  to  Governor  Bernard  what  you  men 
tioned  concerning  him,  who  desires  me  to  present  you 
his  compliments,  and  let  you  know  that  he  is  obliged  to 
you  for  the  expressions  of  your  regard  for  his  injured 
character. 

I  am,  with  great  respect,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  and  most  humble  servant, 

ANDREW  OLIVER. 

I  ask  your  acceptance  of  a  journal  of  the  last  session, 
which  is  put  up  in  a  box  directed  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Board  of  trade. 


37 


Boston,  May  11,1768. 

SIR: — I  am  at  this  moment  favored  with  your  very 
obliging  letter  by  Ca.pt.  Jarvis,  of  the  2d  March,  which  I 
have  but  just  time  to  acknowledge,  as  this  is  the  day 
given  out  for  the  ship  to  sail.  I  wrote  you  the  23d  of 
February  in  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  28th  December  ; 
that  of  the  12th  February  which  you  refer  to  in  this  of 
the  2d  of  March  is  not  yet  come  to  hand.  You  lay  me, 
Sir,  under  the  greatest  obligations,  as  well  for  the  inter 
esting  account  of  public  affairs,  which  you  are  from  time 
to  time  pleased  to  transmit  me,  as  for  your  steady  atten 
tion  to  my  private  concerns.  1  shall  always  have  the 
most  grateful  sense  of  Mr.  Grenville's  intentions  of  favor 
also,  whether  I  ever  reap  any  benefit  from  them  or  not. 
Without  a  proper  support  afforded  to  the  King's  officers, 
the  respect  due  to  government  will  of  course  fail ;  yet  I 
cannot  say  whether,  under  the  present  circumstances,  and 
considering  the  temper  the  people  are  now  in,  an  addi 
tional  provision  for  me  would  be  of  real  benefit  to  me 
personally  or  not.  It  has  been  given  out,  that  no  person 
who  receives  a  stipend  from  the  government  at  home, 
shall  live  in  the  country.  Government  here  wants  some 
effectual  support.  No  sooner  was  it  known  that  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  had  a  provision  of  £200  a  year  made 
for  him  out  of  the  revenue,  than  he  was  advised  in  the 
Boston  Gazette  to  resign  all  pretensions  to  a  seat  in  coun 
cil,  either  with  or  without  a  voice.  The  temper  of  the 
people  will  be  surely  learnt  from  that  infamous  paper  ;  it 
is  the  very  thing  that  forms  their  temper  ;  for  if  they 
are  not  in  the  temper  of  the  writer  at  the  time  of  the 
publication,  yet  it  is  looked  upon  as  the  ORACLE,  and  thev 


38  LETTERS,   &C. 

soon   bring  their  temper  to  it.     Some  of  the  latest  of 
them  are  very  expressive  ;  I  will  not  trouble  you  Avith 
sending  them,  as  I  imagine  they  some  how  or  other  find 
their  way  to  you.      But  I  cannot  but  apprehend  from  these 
papers,  and  from  hints  that  are  thrown  out,  that  if  the  pe 
tition  of  the  House  to  his  Majesty,  and  their  letters  to 
divers  noble  Lords  should  fail  of  success,  some  people 
will  be  mad  enough  to  go  to  extremities.     The  Commis 
sioners  of  the  Customs  have  already  been  openly  affronted, 
the  Governor's  company  of  Cadets  have  come  to  a  reso 
lution  not  to  wait  on  him  (as  usual)  on  the  day  of  Gene 
ral  Election,  the  25th  instant,  if  those  gentlemen  are  of 
the  company.     And  the  Town  of  Boston  have  passed  .a 
Vote  that  Faneuil  Hall  (in  which  the  Governor  and  his 
company  usually  dine  on  that  day)  shall  not  be  opened 
to  him,  if  the    Commissioners   are   invited   to   dine   with 
him.     A  list  of  Counsellors   has  within  a  few  days  past 
been    printed  and    dispersed  by  way  of  sneer  on  Lord 
Shelburne's   letter,  made  up   of    King's   officers  ;  which 
list,  the  writer  says,  if  adopted  at  the  next  general  elec 
tion,  may  take  away  all  grounds  of  complaint,  and  may 
possibly  prove   a  healing   and   a   very  salutary  measure. 
The  Lieutenant  Governor  is  at  the  head  of  this  list,  they 
have  done  me  the  honor   to  put  me  next ;  the   Commis 
sioners   of  the   Customs   are   all  in  the   list  except  Mr. 
Temple,  and  to  complete  the  list,  they  have  added  some 
of  the  waiters.     I  never  thought  till  very  lately  that  they 
acted   upon  any  settled  plan,  nor  do   I  now  think    they 
have   till  of  late ;  a  few,   a  very  few  among  us,   have 
planned  the  present  measures,  and  the  government  has 
been  too  weak  to  subdue  their  turbulent  spirits.     Our 


LETTERS,    &C.  39 

situation  is  not  rightly  known  :  but  it  is  a  matter  worthy 
of  the  most  serious  attention. 

I  am,  with  the  greatest  respect,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  and  most  humble  servant, 

ANDREW  OLIVER. 

I  shall  take  proper  care  to  forward  your  letter  to  Mr. 
Ingersol.     He  had  received  your  last. 


Boston,  February  13,  1769. 

SIR  : — I  have  your  very  obliging  favor  of  the  4th  of 
October.  I  find  myself  constrained,  as  well  by  this  let 
ter  as  by  my  son  and  daughter  Spooner's  letters  since,  to 
render  you  my  most  sincere  thanks  for  the  very  polite 
notice  you  have  taken  of  them  ;  and  I  pray  nr^  most  re 
spectful  compliments  to  the  good  lady,  your  mother, 
whose  friendly  reception  of  them  at  Nonsuch  has,  I  find, 
engaged  their  warmest  esteem  and  respect — He  hath 
wrote  us  that  he  had  a  prospect  of  succeeding  in  the 
business  he  went  upon  ;  but  the  last  letter  we  had  was 
from  her  of  the  23d  of  November,  acquainting  us  that 
he  had  been  very  ill,  but  was  getting  better.  She  writes 
as  a  person  overcome  with  a  sense  of  the  kindness  they 
had  met  with,  in  a  place  where  they  were  strangers,  on 
this  trying  occasion. 

You  have  heard  of  the  arrival  of  the  King's  troops ; 
the  quiet  reception  they  met  with  among  us  was  not  at 
all  surprising  to  me.  I  am  sorry  there  was  any  occasion 
for  sending  them.  From  the  address  of  the  Gentlemen 
of  the  Council  to  General  Gage,  it  might  be  supposed 
there  was  none.  I  have  seen  a  letter  from  our  friend  In- 


40  LETTERS,    &C. 

gersoll  with  this  paraphrase  upon  it — "  We  hope  that 
your  Excellency  observing  with  your  own  eyes,  now  the 
troops  are  among  us,  our  peaceable  and  quiet  behavior, 

will  be  convinced  that  that  wicked  G r  B —     — d 

told  a  fib  in  saying,  We  were  not  so  before  they  came.'' 

I  have  given  you  the  sense  of  a  stranger  on  a  single 
paragraph  of  this  address,  because  I  suspected  my  own 
opinion  of  it,  till  I  found  it  thus  confirmed.  If  you  have 
the  newspapers  containing  the  address,  your  own  good 
sense  will  lead  you  to  make  some  other  remarks  upon  it, 
as  well  as  to  trace  the  influence  under  which  it  seems 
to  have  been  penned.  The  disturbers  of  our  peace  take 
great  advantage  of  such  aids,  from  people  in  office  and 
power.  The  Lieutenant  Governor  has  communicated  to 
me  your  letter,  containing  an  account  of  the  debates  in 
parliament,  on  the  first  day  of  the  session.  We  soon 
expect  their  decision  on  American  affairs,  some  I  doubt 
not  with  fear  and  trembling.  Yet  I  have  very  lately  had 
occasion  to  know,  that  be  the  determination  of  parlia 
ment  what  it  will,  it  is  the  determination  of  some  to  agree 
to  no  terms  that  shall  remove  us  from  our  old  foundation. 
This  confirms  me  in  nn  opinion,  that  I  have  taken  up  a 
long  time  since,  that  if  there  be  no  WMV  to  take  off  the 
original  incendiaries,  they  will  continue  to  instill  their 
poison  into  the  minds  of  the  people,  through  the  vehicle 
of  the  BOSTON  GAZETTE. 

In  your  letter  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  you  ob 
serve  upon  two  defects  in  our  constitution,  the  popular 
election  of  the  Council,  and  the  return  of  Juries  by  the 
Towns.  The  first  of  these  arises  from  the  Charter  itself; 
the  latter  from  our  provincial  Laws.  The  method  of  ap 
pointing  our  Grand  Juries  lies  open  to  management. 


LETTERS,    &C.  41 

Whoever  pleases,  nominates  them  at  our  town-meetings; 
by  this  means  one  who  was  supposed  to  be  a  principal 
in  the  Riots  of  the  10th  of  June  last,  was  upon  that 
Jury,  whose  business  it  was  to  inquire  into  them.  But 
the  provincial  legislature  hath  made  sufficient  provision 
for  the  return  of  Petit  Juries  by  their  act  of  23d  Geo. 
2d,  which  requires  the  several  towns  to  take  lists  of  all 
persons  liable  by  law  to  serve,  and  forming  them  into  two 
classes,  put  their  names  written  on  separate  papers  into 
two  different  boxes,  one  for  the  superior  court,  and  the 
other  for  the  inferior.  And  when  venires  are  issued,  the 
number  therein  required  are  to  be  drawn  out  in  open  town- 
nfeeting,  no  person  to  serve  oftener  than  once  in  three 
years.  The  method  of  appointing  Grand  Juries  appears 
indeed  defective  ;  but  if  the  other  is  not,  it  may  be  im 
puted  to  the  times  rather  than  to  the  defect  of  the  laws, 
that  neither  the  Grand  Juries  nor  the  Petit  Juries  have 
of  late  answered  the  expectations  of  government. 

As  to  the  appointment  of  the  Council,  I  am  of  opinion 
that  neither  the  popular  elections  in  this  province,  nor 
their  appointment  in  what  are  called  the  royal  govern 
ments  by  the  King's  mandamus,  are  free  from  exceptions, 
especially  if  -the  Council  as  a  legislative  body  is  intended 
to  answer  the  idea  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  British  le 
gislature.  There  they  are  supposed  to  be  a  free  and  inde 
pendent  body,  and  on  their  being  such,  the  strength  and  firm 
ness  of  the  constitution  does  very  much  depend  :  whereas 
the  election  or  appointment  of  the  Councils  in  the  manner 
before-mentioned,  renders  them  altogether  dependent  on 
their  constituents.  The  King  is  the  fountain  of  honor, 
and  as  such  the  peers  of  the  realm  derive  their  honors 

from  him  ;  but  then  they  hold  them  by  a  surer  tenure 
6 


42  LETTERS,    &C. 

than  the  provincial  Counsellors,  who  are  appointed  by 
mandamus.  On  the  other  hand,  our  popular  elections 
very  often  expose  them  to  contempt;  for  nothing  is  more 
common,  than  for  the  representatives,  when  they  find  the 
Council  a  little  untractable  at  the  close  of  the  year,  to  re 
mind  them  that  May  is  at  hand. 

It  may  he  accounted  by  the  colonies  as  dangerous  to 
admit  of  any  alterations  in  their  charters,  as  it  is  by  the 
Governors  in  the  church  to  make  any  in  the  establish 
ment  ;  yet  to  make  the  resemblance  as  near  as  may  be  to 
the  British  Parliament,  some  alteration  is  necessary. 

It  is  not  requisite,  that  I  know  of,  that  a  Counsellor 
should  be  a  Freeholder ;  his  residence  according  to  the 
charter,  is  a  sufficient  qualification  ;  for  that  provides 
only,  that  he  be  an  inhabitant  of  or  proprietor  of  lands 
within  the  district  for  which  he  is  chosen  :  whereas  the 
Peers  of  the  realm  sit  in  the  House  of  Lords,  as  I 
take  it,  in  virtue  of  their  baronies.  If  there  should  be  a 
reform  of  any  of  the  colony  charters,  with  a  view  to  keep 
up  the  resemblance  of  the  three  estates  in  England,  the 
legislative  Council  should  consist  of  men  of  landed  es 
tates  :  but  as  our  landed  estates  here  are  small  at  present, 
the  yearly  value  of  £100  sterling  per  annum,  might  in 
some  of  them  at  least  be  a  sufficient  qualification.  As  our 
estates  are  partable  after  the  decease  of  the  proprietor,  the 
honor  could  not  be  continued  in  families  as  in  England. 
It  might  however  be  continued  in  the  appointee  quam  dm 
bene  se  gesserit,  and  proof  be  required  of  some  malpractice 
before  a  suspension  or  removal.  Bankruptcy  also  might 
be  another  ground  for  removal.  A  small  legislative  Coun 
cil  might  answer  the  purposes  of  government ;  but  it 
might  tend  to  weaken  that  leveling  principle,  which  is 


LETTERS,    &C.  43 

cherished  by  the  present  popular  constitution,  to  have  an 
honorary  order  established,  out  of  which  the  Council 
should  be  appointed.  There  is  no  way  now  to  put  a  man 
of  fortune  above  the  common  level,  and  exempt  him  from 
being  chosen  by  the  people  into  the  lower  offices,  but  his 
being  appointed  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  ;  this  is  frequently 
done,  when  there  is  no  kind  of  expectation  of  his  under 
taking  the  trust,  and  has  its  inconveniences.  For  remedy 
hereof  it  might  be  expedient  to  have  an  order  of  Patri 
cians  or  Esquires  instituted,  to  be  all  men  of  fortune  or 
good  landed  estates,  and  appointed  by  the  Governor  with 
the  advice  of  Council,  and  enrolled  in  the  Secretary's 
office,  who  should  be  exempted  from  the  lower  offices  in 
government,  as  the  justices  now  are  ;  and  to  have  the 
legislative  Council  (which  in  the  first  instance  might  be 
nominated  by  the  Crown)  from  time  to  time  filled  up,  as 
vacancies  happen,  out  of  this  order  of  men,  who,  if  the 
order  consisted  only  of  men  of  landed  estates,  might 
elect,  as  the  Scottish  Peers  do,  only  reserving  to  the 
King's  Governor,  a  negative  on  such  choice.  The  King 
in  this  case  would  be  still  acknowledged  as  the  fountain 
of  honor,  as  having,  in  the  first  instance,  the  appointment 
of  the  persons  enrolled,  out  of  whom  the  Council  are  to 
be  chosen,  and  finally  having  a  negative  on  the  choice. 
Or,  the  King  might  have  the  immediate  appointment  by 
mandamus,  as  at  present  in  the  royal  governments.  As 
the  gentlemen  of  the  Council  would  rank  above  the  body 
from  which  they  are  taken,  they  might  bear  a  title  one 
degree  above  that  of  Esquire.  Besides  this  legislative 
Council,  a  privy  Council  might  be  established,  to  consist 
of  some  or  all  of  those  persons  who  constitute  the  legis 
lative  Council,  and  of  other  persons  members  of  the 


44  LETTERS,   &C. 

House  of  Representatives,  or  otherwise  of  note  or  dis 
tinction  ;  which  would  extend  the  honors  of  government, 
and  afford  opportunity  of  distinguishing  men  of  character 
and  reputation,  the  expectation  of  which  would  make  go 
vernment  more  respectable. 

I  would  not  trouble  you  with  these  reveries  of  mine, 
were  I  not  assured  of  your  readiness  to  forgive  the 
communication,  although  you  could  apply  it  to  no  good 

purpose. 

Mr.  Spooner  sent  me  a  pamphlet  under  a  blank  cover, 
entitled,  "  the  state  of  the  nation."     I  run  over  it  by  my 
self  before  I  had  heard  any  one  mention  it,  and  thought, 
I  could    evidently    mark    the   sentiments  of  some  of  my 
friends.     By  what  I  have  since  heard  and  seen,  it  looks 
as  if  1  was  not  mistaken.     Your  right  honorable  friend  I 
trust  will  not  be  offended  if  I  call  him  mine — I  am  sure 
you  will  not  when  I  term  you  such.    I  have  settled  it  for 
a  long  time  in  my  own  mind,  that  without  a  representa 
tion  in  the  supreme  legislature,  there  cannot  be  that  union 
between  the  head  and  the  members  as  to  produce  a  health 
ful   constitution   of  the    whole    body.     I    have    doubted 
whether  this  union  could  be  perfected  by  the  first  experi 
ment.     The  plan  here  exhibited   seems  to  be  formed  in 
generous  and  moderate  principles,  and  bids  the  fairest  of 
any  I  have  yet  seen  to  be  adopted.      Such  a  great  design 
may,  as  in  painting,  require   frequent   touching  before  it 
becomes  a  piece    highly  finished  ;  and  after  all,  may  re 
quire  the  meliorating  hand  of  time  to  make  it  please  uni 
versally.     Thus  the    British   constitution,   considered  as 
without  the  colonies,  attained  its  glory.      The  book  I  had 
sent  me  is  in  such  request,  that  I  have  not  been  able  to 
keep  it  long  enough  by  me,  to  consider  it  in  all  its  parts. 


LETTERS,    &C.  45 

I  wish  to  hear  how  it  is  received  in  the  House  of  Com 
mons.  I  find  by  the  publications,  both  of  Governor 
Pownall  and  Mr.  Bollan,  that  they  each  of  them  adopt 
the  idea  of  an  union  and  representation,  and  I  think  it 
must  more  and  more  prevail.  The  argument  against  it 
from  local  inconveniency,  must,  as  it  appears  to  me,  be 
more  than  balanced  by  greater  inconveniences  on  the  other 
side  the  question  :  the  great  difficulty  will  be  in  the  terms 
of  union.  I  add  no  more,  as  I  fear  I  have  already  tres 
passed  much  on  your  time  and  patience,  but  that  I  am, 
Sir, 

Your  obliged  and  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

ANDREW  OLIVER. 


New  York,  August  12,  1769. 

SIR: — I  have  been  in  this  city  for  some  time  past  exe 
cuting  (with  others)  his  Majesty's  commission  for  settling 
the  boundary  between  this  province  and  that  of  New  Jer 
sey.  I  left  Boston  the  llth  July,  since  which,  my  advices 
from  London  have  come  to  me  very  imperfect ;  but  as  my 
friend  Mr.  Thompson  writes  me,  that  he  had  drawn  up 
my  case,  and  with  your  approbation  laid  it  before  the  D. 
of  Graf  ton,  I  think  it  needful  once  more  to  mention  this 
business  to  you. 

There  was  a  time  when  I  thought  the  authority  of 
government  might  have  been  easily  restored  ;  but  while 
its  friends  and  the  officers  of  the  crown  are  left  to  an  ab 
ject  dependence  on  those  very  people  who  are  under 
mining  its  authority ;  and  while  these  are  suffered  not 
only  to  go  unpunished,  but  on  the  contrary,  meet  with  all 
kind  of  support  and  encouragement,  it  cannot  be  expected 


46  LETTERS,    &C. 

that  you  will  ever  again  recover  that  respect,  which  the 
colonies  had  been  wont  to  pay  to  the  parent  state.  Go 
vernment  at  home  will  deceive  itself,  if  it  imagines  that 
the  taking  off  the  duty  on  glass,  paper,  and  painters' 
colors,  will  work  a  reconciliation,  and  nothing  more  than 
this,  as  I  can  learn,  is  proposed  in  Ld.  H.'s  late  circular 
letter.  It  is  the  principle  that  is  now  disputed  ;  the  com 
bination  against  importation  extends  to  tea,  although  it 
comes  cheaper  than  ever,  as  well  to  the  other  foremen- 
tioned  articles.  In  Virginia  it  is  extended  lately  to 
wines  :  and  I  have  heard  one  of  the  first  leaders  in  these 
measures  in  Boston  say,  that  we  should  never  be  upon  a 
proper  footing  till  all  the  revenue  acts  from  the  15th 
Charles  II.  were  repealed.  Our  Assembly  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  may  have  been  more  illiberal  than  others  in  their 
public  messages  and  resolves  ;  yet  we  have  some  people 
among  us  still  who  dare  to  speak  in  favor  of  government. 
But  here  I  do  not  find  so  much  as  one,  unless  it  be  some 
of  the  King's  servants  ;  and  yet  my  business  here  leads 
me  to  associate  with  the  best.  They  universally  approve 
of  the  combination  against  importing  of  goods  from  Great 
Britain,  unless  the  revenue  acts  are  repealed,  which  ap 
pears  to  me  little  less  than  assuming  a  negative  on  all 
acts  of  parliament  which  they  do  not  like  !  They  say 
expressly,  we  are  bound  by  none  made  since  our  emigra 
tion,  but  such  as  for  our  own  convenience  we  choose  to 
submit  to  ;  such,  for  instance,  as  that  for  establishing  a 
post-office.  The  Bill  of  Rights  and  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Acts,  they  say,  are  only  declaratory  of  common  law, 
which  we  brought  with  us. 

Under  such  circumstances  as  these,  why  should  I  wish 
to  expose  myself  to  popular  resentment  ?     Were  I  to  re- 


LETTERS,    &C.  47 

ceive  any  thing  out  of  the  revenue,  I  must  expect  to  he 
abused  for  it.  Nor  do  I  find  that  our  Chief  Justice  has 
received  the  £200  granted  him  for  that  service  ;  arid  yet 
the  Assembly  have  this  year  withheld  his  usual  grant, 
most  probably  because  he  has  such  a  warrant  from  the 
crown. 

With  regard  to  my  negotiations  with  Mr.  Rogers,  I  did 
in  conformity  to  your  opinion  make  an  apology  to  Mr. 
Secretary  Pownall  for  mentioning  it,  and  there  submitted 
it.  I  hear  it  has  been  since  talked  of;  but  unless  I  could 
be  assured  in  one  shape  or  other  of  £300  per  annum, 
with  the  other  office,  I  would  not  choose  to  quit  what  I 
have.  I  have  no  ambition  to  be  distinguished,  if  I  am 
only  to  be  held  up  as  a  mark  of  popular  envy  or  resent 
ment.  I  was  in  hopes  before  now,  through  the  interven 
tion  of  your  good  offices,  to  have  received  some  mark  of 
favor  from  your  good  friend  ;  but  the  time  is  not  yet 
come  to  expect  it  through  that  channel !  I  will  however 
rely  on  your  friendship,  whenever  you  can  with  propriety 
appear  in  forwarding  my  interest,  or  preventing  any  thing 
that  may  prove  injurious  to  it. 

Jf  Mr.  R.  has  interest  enough  to  obtain  the  Secretary's 
place,  I  shall  upon  receiving  proper  security  think  myself 
in  honor  bound  to  second  his  views,  though  I  have  none 
at  present  from  him  but  a  conditional  note  he  formerly 
wrote  me.  If  he  is  not  like  to  succeed,  and  my  son 
Daniel  could  have  my  place,  I  would  be  content,  unless 
affairs  take  a  different  turn,  to  resign  in  his  favor,  whether 
administration  should  think  proper  to  make  any.  further 
provision  for  me  or  not.  And  yet  I  never  thought  of 
withdrawing  myself  from  the  service,  while  there  ap 
peared  to  me  any  prospect  of  my  being  a.ble  to  promote  it. 


48 

If  I  have  wrote  with  freedom,  I  consider  I  am  writing 
to  a  friend,  and  that  I  am  perfectly  safe  in  opening  my 
self  to  you. 

I  am,  with  great  respect,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

ANDREW  OLIVER. 


DEAR  SIR  : — The  Commissioners  of  the  Customs  have 
met  with  every  insult  since  their  arrival  at  Boston,  and 
at  last  have  been  obliged  to  seek  protection  on  board  his 
Majesty's  ship  Romney.  Mr.  Hallowell,  the  Comptroller 
of  the  Customs,  who  will  have  the  honor  to  deliver  you 
this  letter,  will  inform  you  of  many  particulars ;  he  is 
sent  by  the  Board  with  their  letters  to  government.  Un 
less  we  have  immediately  two  or  three  regiments,  'tis  the 
opinion  of  all  the  friends  to  government,  that  Boston  will 
be  in  open  rebellion. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  the  greatest  respect  and 
warmest  regard, 

Dear  Sir, 
Your  most  faithful  and  obliged  servant, 

CHARLES  PAXTON. 

On  board  his  Majesty  s  Ship  Romney, } 
Boston  Harbor,  June  20,  1768.      / 


Boston,  Dec.  12,1768. 

MY  DEAR  SIR:— I  wrote  you  a  few  days  ago,  and  did 
not  then  think  of  troubling  you  upon  any  private  affair 
of  mine,  at  least  not  so  suddenly;  but  within  this  day 
or  two,  I  have  had  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Oliver,  Secre 


LETTERS,    &C.  49 

tary  of  the   province,  the  design  of  which  was  my  suc 
ceeding  to  the  post    he   holds   from  the  crown,  upon  the 
idea,  that  provision  would  be  made  for  Governor  Bernard, 
and  the  Lieutenant  Governor  would  succeed  to  the  chair, 
then  the  Secretary  is  desirous  of  being  Lieutenant  Go 
vernor,  and  if  in  any  way  three  hundred  pounds  a  year 
could  be  annexed  to  the  appointment.     You  are  sensible 
the  appointment  is  in   one  department,  and  the  grant  in 
another;  now   the  present   Lieutenant  Governor  has  an 
assignment  of  £200  a  year  upon  the  customs  here  ;  he 
has  not  received  any  thing  from  it  as  yet,  and  is  doubtful 
if  he  shall  ;   he  has  no  doubt  of  its  lapse  to  the  crown,  if 
he  has  the  chair;  if  then  by  any  interest,  that  sum  could 
be  assigned  to  Mr.  Oliver  as  Lieutenant    Governor,  and 
if  he  should  be  allowed  (as  has  been  usual  for  all  Lieu 
tenant  Governors)    to  hold   the    command  of  the   castle, 
that  would  be  another  £100.      This  would   complete   the 
Secretary's  views  ;  and  he  thinks  his  public  services,  the 
injuries  he  has  received  in  that  service,  and  the  favorable 
sentiments  entertained  of  him  by  government,  may  lead 
him  to  these  views,  and  he  hopes  for   the  interest  of  his 
friends.     The  place  of  Secretary  is  worth  £300  a  year, 
but  is  a  provincial  grant  at  present,  so  that  it    will  not 
allow  to  be  quartered  on;  and  as  I  had  views  upon  the 
place  when  I  was  in  England,  and  went  so  far  as  to  con 
verse  with  several  men  of  interest  upon  it,  though  I  never 
had  an  opportunity  to  mention  it  to  you  after  I  recovered 
my  illness.     I  hope  you  will  allow  me  your  influence,  and 
by  extending  it  at  the  Treasury,  to  facilitate  the  assign 
ment  of  the  £200  a  year;  it  will  be  serving  the  Secretary, 
and  it  will  very  much  oblige  me.     The  Secretary  is  ad- 
vanced  in  life,  though  much  more  so  in  health,  which  has 


50  LETTERS,    &C. 

been  much  impaired  by  the  injuries  he  received,  and  he 
wishes  to  quit  the  more  active  scenes;  he  considers  this 
as  a  kind  of  otium  cum  dignitate,  and  from  merits  one  may 
think  he  has  a  claim  to  it.  I  will  mention  to  you  the 
gentlemen  who  are  acquainted  with  my  views,  and  whose 
favorable  approbation  I  have  had.  Governor  Pownall, 
Mr.  John  Pownall,  and  Dr.  Franklin.  My  Lord  Hills- 
borough  is  not  unacquainted  with  it.  I  have,  since  T 
have  been  here,  wrote  Mr.  Jackson  upon  the  subject,  and 
have  by  this  vessel  wrote  Mr.  Mauduit.  I  think  my 
character  stands  fair.  I  have  not  been  without  applica 
tion  to  public  affairs,  and  have  acquired  some  knowledge 
of  our  provincial  affairs,  and  notwithstanding  our  many 
free  conversations  in  England,  I  am  considered  here  as  on 
government  side,  for  which  I  have  been  often  traduced 
both  publicly  and  privately,  and  ver}'  lately  have  had  two 
or  three  slaps.  The  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor 
are  fully  acquainted  with  the  negotiation,  and  I  meet 
their  approbation  ;  all  is  upon  the  idea  the  Governor  is 
provided  for,  and  there  shall  by  any  means  be  a  vacancy 
of  the  Lieutenant  Governor's  place.  I  have  gone  so  far 
as  to  say  to  some  of  my  friends,  that  rather  than  not  suc 
ceed  I  would  agree  to  pay  the  Secretary  £100  a  year  out 
of  the  office,  to  make  up  £300,  provided  he  could  obtain 
only  the  assignment  of  £200 — but  the  other  proposal 
would,  to  be  sure,  be  most  eligible.  I  scarce  know  any 
apology  to  make  for  troubling  you  upon  the  subject;  the 
friendship  you  shewed  me  in  London,  and  the  favorable 
expressions  you  made  use  of  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
in  my  behalf,  encourage  rne,  besides  a  sort  of  egotism, 
which  inclines  men  to  think  what  they  wish  to  be  real. 


&c.  51 

I  submit  myself  to  the  enquiries  of  any  of  my  country 
men  in  England,  but  I  should  wish  the  matter  may  be 
secret  till  it  is  effected. 

I  am,  with  very  great  respect  and  regard,  my  dear  Sir, 
Your  most  obedient  and  most  humble  servant, 

NATH.  ROGERS. 


KEMAEKS 

IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  FOREGOING  LETTERS. 


BY  ISRAEL  MAUDUIT. 


THESE  are  the  letters,  upon  which  the  Assembly  have 
artfully  been  induced  to  pass  their  censures,  and  have 
founded  an  Address  to  remove  his  Majesty's  Governor 
and  Lieutenant  Governor.  Unable  to  point  out  a  single 
action  of  the  Governor's  during  his  four  years  administra 
tion,  they  find  themselves  under  a  necessity  of  recurring 
to  letters,  written  before  the  time,  when  either  of  these 
gentlemen  were  possessed  of  the  offices  which  they  now 
enjoy. 

Upon  the  revival  of  them,  I  see  strong  proofs  of  Mr. 
llutchinson's  judgment  and  understanding,  of  his  just  no 
tions  of  the  interest  of  that  country  and  of  this,  and  of 
his  fidelity  and  steady  regard  to  the  welfare  of  both  : 
but  am  at  a  loss  to  find  what  there  is  in  them,  which  can 
be  a  ground  of  blame  ;  and  much  less  warrant  the  very 
extraordinary  censures,  which  have  been  passed  on  them. 
They  are  his  private  correspondence  with  the  late  Mr. 
Thomas  Whately,  a  private  Gentleman  in  London  :  a 

(52) 


REMARKS   IN  DEFENCE   OF   THE    FOREGOING  LETTERS.       53 

Member  of  Parliament  indeed,  and  one  who  has  been 
Secretary  to  the  Treasury  :  but  who  was  then  out  of 
place;  and  far  from  being  connected  with  Government, 
during  the  whole  time  while  these  letters  were  writing, 
was  voting  in  opposition.  Being  neither  of  them  in  trade, 
their  letters  did  not  contain  bills  or  invoices,  but  they 
turned  upon  subjects  which  Gentlemen  naturally  write 
about  to  each  other  :  the  occurrences  of  the  time,  and 
the  several  public  matters,  which  were  transacting  in  the 
places  where  each  of  them  resided.  The  intelligences 
they  contain  may  have  come  to  hand  something  earlier 
than  those  by  the  common  conveyance.  But  the  facts 
themselves  were,  soon  after,  all  known  to  every  man  in 
this  country  as  well  as  that. 

They  give  an  account  of  a  riot  at  Boston,  upon  the 
seizure  of  a  smuggling  vessel  belonging  to  Mr.  Hancock, 
a  principal  supporter  of  the  party,  and  one  of  the  Com 
mittee  appointed  to  the  management  of  the  censure  passed 
upon  these  letters  ;  but  of  this  riot  we  all  of  us  in  due 
time  from  our  several  correspondents,  knew  full  as  much 
as  Mr.  Whately  did  from  his.* 

The  letters  mention  the  combination  at  Boston  against 
taking  our  goods:  but  is  it  a  crime  to  write  as  news,  what 
they  wished  to  have  told  to  all  the  world  ?  and  printed 
in  their  newspapers  for  that  very  purpose,  in  order  to 
bully  our  Ministers,  and  frighten  our  Merchants  and 

*  In  this  riot,  Mr.  Harrison,  the  Collector,  an  old  Gentleman  of  an  irre 
proachable  character,  and  very  respectable  appearance,  received  a  contusion  in 
his  breast  by  a  brick-bat,  which  was  thrown  at  him,  under  the  ill-effects  of 
which  he  languished  for  more  than  twelve  months,  and  probably  might  have 
been  trampled  to  death,  if  his  son  and  others  had  not  rescued  him.  This  is 
what  they  called  a  Brush,  or  small  disturbance  with  boys  and  negroes. 


54       REMARKS   IN   DEFENCE    OF    THE    FOREGOING   LETTERS. 

Manufacturers.  They  mention  that  upon  the  Governor's 
not  judging  it  proper  to  call  an  Assembly  at  the  will  of 
the  party  leaders  at  Boston,  these  townsmen  took  upon 
themselves  to  write  circular  letters  to  all  the  towns  and 
districts,  to  send  one  person  each  to  Boston.  And  do 
we  not  all  know  that  they  did  send  such  summons  ?  and 
that  this  Mock  Assembly  did  meet  ?  and  did  they  not 
desire  that  the  world  should  know  it,  and  publish  their 
resolves  for  that  purpose  ? 

These  letters  mention  the  need  there  is  of  the  govern 
ment's  supporting  and  encouraging  the  officers  of  the 
crown  in  the  faithful  discharge  of  their  duty.  And  had 
not  the  House  of  Commons  long  before  this  determined 
the  very  same  thing  ?  and  did  they  not  address  his  Ma 
jesty,  that  he  would  so  support  and  countenance  them  ? 
They  mention  the  common  people's  having  been  worked 
up  into  a  frenzy,  and  their  having  talked  of  dying  in  de 
fence  of  their  liberties.  And  have  they  not  been  per 
petually  publishing  threatenings  of  the  same  sort  ?  and 
in  all  their  papers  sounding  the  trumpet  of  mutiny  and 
sedition  ? 

The  letters  say  that  many  of  rank  above  the  vulgar, 
and  some  in  public  posts,  had  encouraged  this  frenzy. 
And  do  these  censurers  pretend  to  say  they  were  not  in 
such  a  state  of  confusion  ?  Far  from  denying  the  truth 
of  this  account,  the  Committee  of  Council  themselves  ac 
knowledge  that  "  the  state  of  things  at  this  time  was 
greatly  disordered,  but  the  greatness  of  this  disorder  they 
say  arose  from  other  causes ;  which  they  there  enume 
rate."  Whether  they  or  Mr.  Hutchinson  were  right  in 
their  judgment  about  the  causes  of  these  disorders  is  im 
material  to  the  present  argument.  Both  acknowledge 


REMARKS    IN    DEFENCE    OF   THE    FOREGOING    LETTERS.       55 

that  there  were  disorders.  And  had  not  Mr.  Hotch- 
inson  as  good  a  right  to  give  his  opinion  about  the 
causes  of  them  to  a  private  correspondent,  as  these  gen 
tlemen  have  openly  to  traduce  the  British  Government, 
and  to  sajr  that  they  were  owing  to  them  ? 

With  the  relation  of  these  facts,  the  letters  mention 
the  writer's  sentiments  upon  Government,  and  such  other 
subjects  as  occur  :  sentiments  which,  as  Mr.  llutchinson 
justly  observes,  contain  nothing  respecting  the  constitu 
tion  of  the  colonies,  more  than  what  is  contained  in  his 
public  speeches  to  the  Assembly.  But  whether  they  did 
or  did  not,  will  these  sons  of  liberty,  as  they  affect  to  call 
themselves,  avow  the  position,  that  a  Gentleman  of  Bos 
ton  ought  not  to  write  his  opinions  to  his  friend  in  Lon- 
eon,  unless  those  opinions  do  exactly  coincide  with  theirs  ? 
I  say  nothing  of  the  moderation  and  good  temper  which 
appears  in  all  these  letters  ;  for  if  they  could  have  been 
still  more  temperate,  yet,  while  Mr.  Hutchinson  stands 
in  the  way  of  the  leaders  of  a  faction,  who  can  live  by 
nothing  but  confusion,  they  would  have  equally  con 
demned  them.  They  wanted  nothing  more  than  to  get 
some  letters  under  the  Governor's  hand  ;  and  whatever 
they  were  they  would  have  condemned  them  in  the  same 
manner  as  they  do  these,  and  have  found  that  the  design 
of  them  was  to  overthrow  the  Constitution,  and  to  intro 
duce  arbitrary  power  into  the  province.  Thus  they  have 
treated  their  former  Governors  ;  thus  they  have  treated 
this  ;  and,  if  Mr.  Hutchinson  were  to  die,  in  three  months 
time  they  would  treat  his  successor  in  the  same  manner. 
I  might  justly  rest  the  matter  here;  and  appeal  to 
every  impartial  reader,  whether  if  his  own  private  cor 
respondence  should,  by  any  act  of  fraud  or  perfidy,  hap- 


56       REMARKS   IN   DEFENCE    OF   THE    FOREGOING   LETTERS. 

pen  to  be  betrayed,  he  would  not  feel  himself  happy  to 
find,  that  his  letters  contained  as  many  things  as  these 
do,  for  his  friends  to  commend,  and  so  very  few  for  the 
malice  of  his  enemies  to  carp  at.  But  as  these  men  affect 
a  mighty  concern  lest  Mr.  Whately  should  have  shewed 
his  letters  to  the  King;  and  they  might  interrupt  and 
"  alienate  the  affections  of  our  most  gracious  Sovereign 
King  George  the  Third,  from  his  loyal  and  affectionate 
province  ;  and  destroy  the  harmony  and  good-will  between 
Great  Britain  and  that  colony,  which  every  friend  to 
either  would  wish  to  establish  :"  and  as  the  generality  of 
people  here,  misled  by  false  representations  and  feigned 
letters  in  newspapers,  are  but  too  apt  to  believe  them, 
this  makes  it  necessary  to  take  off  the  mask  of  hypoc 
risy,  and  to  exhibit  them  in  their  own  proper  features. 
When  the  reader  will  himself  see,  that  all  these  fearful 
apprehensions  of  his  Majesty's  displeasure,  and  all  these 
professed  desires  of  harmony  between  Great  Britain  and 
the  Colony,  are  mere  mockery  and  insult;  and  that  they 
really  mean  the  direct  contrary. 

See,  reader,  the  true  standard  of  their  loyalty,  ex 
tracted  from  the  Journals  of  the  last  House  of  Represen 
tatives.  The  party  had  it  not  in  their  power  to  make  a 
declaratory  Act  of  Assembly,  because  they  knew  that  the 
Governor  would  riot  pass  it :  but  they  passed  the  follow 
ing  declaratory  resolutions  : 

Mcrcurii,  3  die  Martii,  A.  D.  1773. 

"  The  House,  according  to  order,  entered  into  the  con 
sideration  of  the  report  of  the  Committee  appointed  to 
consider  his  Excellency's  message  relative  to  the  salaries 


REMARKS    IN    DEFENCE    OF  THE    FOREGOING    LETTERS.       57 

of  the  Justices    of  the    Superior   Court ;  arid  thereupon 
the  following  resolves  were  passed  : 

"  Whereas,  by  an  act  of  the  British  Parliament,  made 
and   passed   in   the  sixth  year  of  his  present  Majesty's 
reign,  it  is  declared,  That  the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons 
in   Parliament   assembled   have,    ever  had,  and  of  right 
ought  to  have,  full  power  and  authority  to  make   laws 
and  statutes  of  sufficient  force  and  validity,  to  bind  the 
colonies  and  people  of  America,  subjects  of  the  Crown 
of  Great  Britain,  in  all  cases  whatever;  and  afterwards 
the  same  Parliament  made  and  passed  an  act  for  levying 
duties  in  America,  with  the  express  purpose  of  raising  a 
revenue,  and    to  enable  his   Majesty  to  appropriate  the 
same  for  the  necessary  charges  of  the  administration  of 
justice,  and  the  support  of  civil  government  in  such  colo 
nies  where  it  shall  be  judged  necessary,  and  towards  fur 
ther  defraying  the  expenses  of  defending,  protecting,  and 
securing   said    dominions.     And    his   Majesty  has    been 
pleased,  by  virtue  of  the  same  last-mentioned  act,  to  ap 
propriate  a  part  of  the  revenue    thus   raised    against  the 
consent  of  the  people,  in  providing  for  the  support  of  the 
Governor  of  the  province  ;    and   from  his    Excellency's 
message  of  the  4th  of  February  we  cannot  but  conclude, 
that  provision  is  made  for  the  support  of  the  Judges  of 
the    Superior    Court  of  Judicature,  independent  of  the 
grants  and  acts  of  the  General  Assembly,  contrary  to  the 
invariable  usage  of  this  province  :"  therefore, 

''  Resolved,  That  the  admitting  any  authority  to  make 
laws  binding  on  the  people  of  this  province  in  all  cases 
whatsoever,  saving  the  General  Court  or  Assembly,  is  in 
consistent  with  the  spirit  of  our  free  constitution,  and  is 
repugnant  to  one  of  the  most  essential  clauses  in  our 

8 


58       REMARKS    IN    DEFENCE    OF    THE    FOREGOING    LETTERS. 

charter,  whereby  the  inhabitants  are  entitled  to  all  the 
liberties  of  free  and  natural  born  subjects,  to  all  intents, 
constructions,  and  purposes  whatsoever,  as  if  they  had 
been  born  within  the  realm  of  England.  It  reduces  the 
people  to  the  absolute  will  and  disposal  of  a  Legislature, 
in  which  they  can  have  no  voice,  and  who  may  make  it 
their  interest  to  oppress  and  enslave  them. 

"  Resolved,  That  by  the  Royal  Charter  aforesaid,  '  the 
General  Court  or  Assembly  hath  full  power  and  authority 
to  impose  and  levy  proportionable  and  reasonable  assess 
ments,  rates,  and  taxes,  upon  the  estates  and  persons  of 
all  and  every  the  proprietors  and  inhabitants  of  the  pro 
vince,  to  be  issued  and  disposed  of  by  warrant,  under  the 
hand  of  the  Governor,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Council,  for  his  Majesty's  service  in  the  necessary  defence 
and  support  of  the  government  of  the  province,  and  the 
protection  and  preservation  of  the  inhabitants  there,  ac 
cording  to  such  acts  as  are  or  shall  be  in  force  within  the 
province.'  And  the  making  provision  for  the  support  of 
the  Governor  and  the  Judges  otherwise  than  by  the  grants 
and  acts  of  the  General  Court  or  Assembly,  is  a  violent 
breach  of  the  aforesaid  most  important  clause  in  the 
charter  :  the  support  of  government,  in  which  their  sup 
port  is  included,  being  one  of  the  principal  purposes  for 
which  the  clause  was  inserted. 

"  Whereas  the  independence  as  well  as  the  uprightness 
of  the  Judges  of  the  land  is  essential  to  the  impartial  ad 
ministration  of  justice,  arid  one  of  the  best  securities  of 
the  rights,  liberties,  and  properties  of  the  people, 

"  Resolved,  therefore,  That  the  making  the  Judges  of 
the  land  independent  of  the  grants  of  the  people,  and 
altogether  dependent  on  the  crown,  as  they  will  be,  if 


I 

REMARKS  IN  DEFENCE  OF  THE  FOREGOING  LETTERS.   59 

while  they  thus  hold  their  commissions  during  pleasure, 
they  accept  of  salaries  from  the  crown,  is  unconstitutional 
and  destructive  of  that  security,  which  every  good  mem 
ber  of  civil  society  has  a  just  right  to  be  assured  of,  under 
the  due  execution  of  the  laws,  and  is  directly  the  reverse 
of  the  constitution  and  appointment  of  the  Judges  in 
Great  Britain. 

"Resolved,  That  the  dependence  of  the  Judges  of  the 
land  on  the  crown  for  their  support,  tends  at  all  times, 
especially  while  *they  hold  their  commissions  during  plea- 
sure,  to  the  subversion  of  justice  and  equity,  and  to  in 
troduce  oppression  and  despotic  power. 

"  Resolved,  As  the  opinion  of  this  House,  that  while  the 
Justices  of  the  Superior  Court  hold  their  commissions 
during  pleasure,  any  one  of  them  who  shall  accept  of, 
and  depend  upon  the  pleasure  of  the  crown  for  his  sup 
port,  independent  of  the  grants  and  acts  of  the  General 
Assembly,  will  discover  to  the  world,  that  he  has  not  a 
due  sense  of  <  the  importance  of  an  impartial  administra 
tion  of  justice,  that  he  is  an  enemy  to  the  constitution, 
and  has  it  in  his  heart  to  promote  the  establishment  of 
an  arbitrary  government  in  the  province/  " 

Reader,  after  the  perusal  of  these  resolutions,  what 
are  all  the  things  said  of  these  men  in  Mr.  Hutchinson's 
letters,  compared  with  what  they  here  say  of  themselves  ? 
Or  what  is  there  in  his  mentioning  some  particular  in 
stances  of  their  not  paying  a  due  obedience  to  the  au 
thority  of  government,  compared  with  this  open  disavowal 
of  the  whole?  Yet  the  Committee,  which  drew  up  these 
resolutions,  consisted  chiefly  of  the  same  individual  men, 
with  the  Committee,  which  drew  up  the  censure  on  these 
letters.  And  indeed  they  are  the  same  set  of  men,  whose 


60       REMARKS    IN   DEFENCE    OF    THE    FOREGOING    LETTERS. 

names  appear  in  all  Committees  of  this  sort.  These  are 
the  men,  who,  in  order  to  give  a  plausible  color  to  their 
censures,  can  transform  themselves  into  the  appearance 
of  the  most  meek  and  submissive  of  all  his  Majesty's 
subjects,  and  affect  to  be  greatly  alarmed  at  these  private 
letters,  and  to  believe  that  "  they  had  a  natural  and  effi 
cacious  tendency  to  interrupt  and  alienate  the  affections 
of  our  Most  Gracious  Sovereign,  King  George  the  Third, 
from  this  his  loyal  arid  affectionate  province  ;  to  destroy 
that  harmony  and  good  will  between  Gr*eat  Britain  and 
this  colony,  which  every  friend  to  either  would  wish  to 
establish  ;  and  to  excite  the  resentment  of  the  British 
Administration  against  this  province,  &c." 

At  that  very  time,  when  they  knew  that  they  had 
been  flying  in  the  face  of  his  Majesty,  setting  acts  of 
parliament  at  defiance,  and  passing  the  most  seditious 
resolutions  against  the  dignity  of  the  British  nation,  and 
the  supreme  authority  of  the  empire  ;  at  that  very  time 
these  tender-minded  loyalists  are  most  piteously  con 
cerned  about  some  private  letters,  lest  they  should  inter 
rupt  and  alienate  the  affections  of  their  Most  Gracious 
Sovereign  King  George  the  Third  :  letters  which  set 
them  in  a  light  of  innocence,  compared  with  the  mutinous 
and  insolent  portrait,  which  they  have  here  drawn  of 
themselves. 

After  having  in  their  public  votes  spurned  at  the  King's 
orders,  assumed  to  themselves  the  control  of  his  Courts 
of  Justice,  and  proscribed  the  King's  Judges  as  enemies 
to  the  constitution,  and  promoters  of  arbitrary  govern 
ment,  if  they  obey  the  King's  order,  founded  on  an  act 
of  parliament,  and  receive  the  King's  salaries,  they  then 
call  themselves  his  most  loyal  and  affectionate  subjects. 


REMARKS    IN    DEFENCE    OF   THE    FOREGOING    LETTERS.       61 

They  openly  recite  a  solemn  act  of  the  British  legisla 
ture,  and  make  a  counter  declaration  of  their  own  in  di 
rect  opposition  to  it ;  and  then  pretend  to  be  mightily 
afraid,  lest  these  letters  to  Mr.  Whately  should  destroy 
the  harmony  and  good-will  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
colony. 

But  not  content  with  professing  their  great  concern  to 
preserve  the  good-will  of  the  British  nation,  and  to  ap 
pear  to  his  Majesty  as  his  most  affectionate  subjects,  they 
are  anxious  even  about  the  good  opinion  of  his  Ministers  ; 
and  are  grievously  concerned,  lest  these  letters  should 
excite  the  resentment  of  the  British  Administration.  Reader, 
these  very  men,  'Adams,  Hancock,  &c.,  who,  in  the  form 
of  a  Committee  of  Correspondence  for  the  town  of  Bos 
ton,  have  been  inflaming  all  the  towns  in  the  province 
against  the  King's  government;  who,  in  the  form  of  a 
Committee  of  Assembly,  drew  up  these  resolutions,  and 
these  censures ;  these  very  men,  in  a  message  to  the 
Governor,  12th  February,  1773,  express  themselves  in 
the  following  terms  :  "  We  are  more  and  more  convinced, 
that  it  has  been  the  design  of  the  Administration,  totally 
to  subvert  the  constitution,  and  to  introduce  arbitrary  go 
vernment  into  this  province."  Doubtless,  the  King's  ser 
vants  ought,  every  man  of  them,  to  join  in  advising  his 
Majesty  to  dismiss  his  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor, 
who  could  suppose  any  thing  ill  of  men  who  stood  so 
much  in  awe  of  their  resentment  ? 

There  is  one  remark  more,  which  cannot  have  escaped 
the  reader.  One  of  the  chief  passages  objected  to  by 
these  censurers,  is  that  where  Mr.  Hutchinson  says :  "If 
no  measures  shall  have  been  taken  to  secure  this  depend 
ence,  or  nothing  more  than  some  declaratory  acts  or  re- 


62       REMARKS   IN   DEFENCE    OF   THE    FOREGOING   LETTERS. 

solves,  it  is  all  over  with  us."  Can  there  possibly  be  re 
quired  a  stronger  proof  of  the  truth  of  this  observation 
about  the  inefficacy  of  our  declaratory  act,  than  the 
counter  declaration  which  we  have  now  seen  ?  yet,  after 
having  themselves  verified  the  prediction,  they  would 
have  his  Majesty  turn  out  his  Governor  for  having 
made  it. 

Reader,  there  are  but  too  many  men  to  be  found,  who, 
after  doing  a  bad  thing,  will  be  false  enough  to  charge  it 
upon  others.  There  are  also  other  instances  of  men,  who 
having  done  a  wrong  thing,  will  affect  to  consider  as  the 
highest  affront,  they  being  told  that  they  have  done  it. 
But  for  men  first  to  do  a  thing,  then  to  avow  it,  and 
publish  to  the  world  that  they  have  done  it,  and  after 
all  this  to  censure  it  as  a  crime  in  their  Governor  to  sup 
pose  them  capable  of  doing  it, — this  is  a  degree  of 
effrontery  suited  only  to  the  complexion  of  a  Boston 
Committee-man. 

There  are  a  few  other  remarks  which  it  may  be  of  use 
to  make  upon  these  letters. 

The  only  exceptionable  expression  in  Mr.  Hutchinson's 
letters,  is  that  in  which  he  says,  there  must  be  an  abridg 
ment  of  what  are  called  English  Liberties.  And  this  ap 
pears  so,  only  from  our  not  being  apprized  of  the  mean 
ing  of  it.  An  English  reader  naturally  concludes,  that 
by  English  Liberties  is  meant  our  being  governed,  not  by 
arbitrary  will,  but  only  by  Acts  of  Parliament.  In  the 
Boston  new  dialect  the  import  of  this  phrase  is  just  the 
contrary  ;  and  what  they  call  English  Liberties  >  is  the  not 
being  governed  by  Acts  of  Parliament.  The  reader  need 
only  look  into  their  votes  and  public  proceedings,  to  be 
convinced  that  this  is  the  true  and  avowed  sense  in  which 


REMAEKS    IN  DEFENCE    OF    THE    FOREGOING  LETTERS.       63 

they  understand  it.     In  the  Charter  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony,  King  William,  in  the  words  of  their  old  Charter, 
says  :  "  And  farther  our  will  and  pleasure  is,  and  we  do 
hereby  for  us,  our  heirs,  and  successors,  grant,  establish, 
and  ordain,  That  all  and  every  of  the  subjects  of  us,  our 
heirs,  and  successors,  which  shall  go  to  and  inhabit  within 
our  said  province  and  territory,  and  every  of  their  chil 
dren,  which  shall  happen  to  be  born  there,  or  on  the  seas 
in  going  thither,  or  returning  from  thence,  shall  have  and 
enjoy   all  liberties  and   immunities   of  free   and  natural 
subjects,  within  any  of  the  dominions  of  us,  our  heirs,  and 
successors,  to  all  intents,  constructions,  and  purposes  what 
soever,  as  if  the}r  and   every  of  them  were  born  within 
this  our  realm  of  England."     From  King  William's  reign 
to  this,  no  one  ever  had  the  least  doubt  about  the  mean 
ing  of  this  clause  ;  and  the  New  Englanders  have  ever 
enjoyed  the  full  benefit  of  it,  by  their  being  treated  in 
all  parts  of  the  King's    dominions,  wherever  they  came, 
not  as  aliens,  but  as  denisons,  and  enjoying  all  the  liber 
ties  and   immunities  of  free   and    natural   born  subjects. 
This,  I  say,  has  invariably  hitherto  been  understood  to  be 
the   meaning  of  this  paragraph.     But   within  these  few 
years,  the  leaders  of  the  faction  at  Boston  have  been  in 
structed   to   pat  a  quite   new   interpretation   upon  these 
words,  and  to  say  :   The  people  of  England  have  a  right 
to   choose   Representatives    for  themselves,  and  are  go 
verned  only  by  Acts  of  Parliament;  the  charter  says, 
that  we  shall  enjoy   all  liberties  and  immunities  of  free 
and  natural  subjects  within  any  of  the  King's  dominions  ; 
therefore  we  too  have  as  good  a  right,  as  the  people  of 
England  have,  to  choose  our  own  Representatives,  and  to 
be  governed  only  by  the  laws  made  by  our  own  Assem- 


64       REMARKS   IN   DEFENCE    OF   THE   FOREGOING   LETTERS. 

bly  ;  and  the  Parliament  of  England  have  nothing  to  do 
with  us.  We,  as  well  as  the  inhabitants  of  England,  by 
our  charter  are  entitled  to  English  liberties,  and  therefore 
we  will  make  laws  for  ourselves ;  and  no  legislature  of 
Great  Britain  has  any  right  to  control  us. 

A  subordinate  power  of  legislation,  for  the  well  order 
ing  the  several  provinces  and  corporations,  and  for  the 
making  laws  for  their  own  good  government  among  them 
selves,  that  is  a  power  which  we  can  well  understand  ; 
and  accordingly  in  the  Massachusetts  Charter,  as  well  as 
in  most  other  Charters,  there  is  an  express  clause,  giving 
them  this  legislative  power,  and  limiting  the  extent  of  it ; 
that  its  laws  shall  not  be  repugnant  or  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  realm,  or  as  the  next  paragraph  says,  repug 
nant  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  our  realm.  But 
these  Bostoners  passing  over  this,  and  all  the  other 
clauses  in  their  Charter,  which  provide  for  their  welfare 
arid  good  government,  while  they  continue  in  the  pro 
vince,  have  most  unfortunately  chosen  to  build  their  high 
claim  of  independence  upon  that  single  clause  which 
grants  them  nothing  while  they  are  in  the  province,  but 
only  provides  for  their  good  reception  in  all  parts  of  the 
Kings  dominions,  when  they  go  out  of  it. 

In  opposition  to  this  wild  and  futile  claim  of  independ 
ence,  Mr.  Hutchinson  insists,  "  that  from  King  William's 
days  to  these,  the  oldest  man  living  never  heard  of  this 
interpretation.  That  never  before  these  days  was  a  doubt 
made  of  the  supreme  authority  of  Parliament  over  every 
part  of  the  empire.  That  in  every  government  there 
must  be  somewhere  a  supreme  uncontrolable  power,  an 
absolute  authority  to  decide  and  determine.  That  two 


REMARKS    IN    DEFENCE    OF   THE    FOREGOING    LETTERS.       65 

such  powers  cannot  co-exist,  but  necessarily  will  make 
two  distinct  states." 

Whether  it  be  right  or  not,  that  the  empire  should  be 
split  into  a  number  of  separate  and  independent  govern 
ments,  which  shall  each  of  them  be  at  liberty  to  take 
their  own  course,  and  make  laws  according  to  their  own 
liking,  without  being  subject  to  any  control  from  that  su 
preme  legislature,  which  has  hitherto  been  thought  to 
have  the  care  of  the  whole,  and  whose  duty  it  is  to  see 
that  no  part  of  the  empire  suffer  any  detriment,  that  is 
an  argument  which  I  leave  to  the  determination  of  a  su 
perior  authority. 

Whether  it  be  a  justifiable  procedure  to  foster  and  en 
courage  this  froward  humor  in  the  Colonists,  and  to  sup 
port  them  in  these  pretensions  of  independence,  till  we 
have  nursed  up  their  discontents  into  mutiny  and  rebel 
lion, — whether,  I  say,  it  be  a  justifiable  thing  to  do  this, 
for  the  single  purpose  of  distressing  or  oversetting  a  min 
istry,  that  I  leave  to  the  discretion  of  our  party  leaders. 

All  that  I  have  to  observe  is  this  :  That  if  by  English 
liberties  and  immunities  be  meant  a  right  given  to  a  set 
of  subjects,  wherever  they  go,  to  erect  a  legislature  of 
their  own,  and  then  to  say  that  they  will  be  governed 
by  that  only,  and  that  the  Parliament  has  nothing  to  do 
with  them ;  if,  immediately  after  King  James  had  been 
expelled  for  attempting  to  suspend  a  very  few  Acts  of 
Parliament,  it  can  be  supposed,  that  King  William  meant 
to  assume  a  power  to  suspend  them  all, — we  may  then 
allow,  that  the  people  of  Boston  have  a  right  to  vote 
these  to  be  English  liberties. 

But  if  the  British  empire  be  but  one  empire,  and  we 
do  not  wish  to  see  it  crumble  to  pieces,  and  break  it  into 


66       REMARKS   IN   DEFENCE    OF    THE    FOREGOING   LETTERS. 

as  many  separate  governments,  as  are  the  provinces, 
counties,  and  corporations  contained  in  it :  we  must  then 
be  convinced,  that  a  grant  of  English  liberties  and  immu 
nities  does  not  mean  a  right  given  to  every  province  or 
corporation  of  the  empire,  to  separate  itself  from  the  rest 
of  the  British  dominions,  and  to  form  to  itself  a  legisla 
ture  of  its  own,  which  shall  be  uncontrolable  by  Parlia 
ment. 

Or,  if  the  people  of  Massachusetts  Bay  will  persist  in 
the  use  of  this  phrase,  and  will  say,  that  this  ought  to 
be  called  English  liberties ;  we  must  then  say,  as  Mr. 
Hutchinson  does,  that  the  British  empire  is  but  one,  and 
that  to  preserve  that  unity,  there  must  be  an  abridgment 
of  what  are  (thus  absurdly)  called  English  liberties. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDEESS 


ASSEMBLY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY, 


TO    REMOVE 


HIS  MAJESTY'S  GOVERNOR  AND  LIEUTENANT  GOVERNOR. 


To  the  Right  Hon.  the  Earl  of  DARTMOUTH. 

(Copy.) 

London,  August  21,  1773. 

MY  LORD  : — I  have  just  received  from  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  their  Address 
to  the  King,  which  1  now  enclose,  and  send  to  your  Lord 
ship  with  my  humble  request  in  their  behalf,  that  you 
would  be  pleased  to  present  jt  to  his  Majesty  the  first 
convenient  opportunity. 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing  from  that  province  by 
my  late  letters,  that  a  sincere  disposition  prevails  in  the 
people  there  to  be  on  good  terms  with  the  Mother  Coun 
try  ;  that  the  Assembly  have  declared  their  desire  only 
to  be  put  into  the  situation  they  were  in  before  the  stamp 
act;  they  aim  at  no  novelties.  And  it  is  said,  that 
having  lately  discovered,  as  they  think,  the  authors  of 

(67) 


68   PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

their  grievances  to  be  some  of  their  own  people,  their  re 
sentment  against  Britain  is  thence  much  abated. 

This   good    disposition  of  theirs    (will  your  Lordship 
permit   me   to    say  ?)   may  be   cultivated    by  a  favorable 
answer  to  this  Address,  which  I  therefore  hope  your  good 
ness  will  endeavor  to  obtain. 
With  the  greatest  respect, 

I  have  the  Honor  to  be,  my  Lord,  &c., 

B.  FRANKLIN, 
Agent  for.  the  House  of  Representatives. 

To  the  Clerk  of  the  Council  in  waiting. 

(COPY.) 

Whitehall,  Dec.  3,  1773. 

SIR: — The  Agent  for  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  having  delivered 
to  Lord  Dartmouth  an  Address  of  that  House  to  .the 
King,  signed  by  their  Speaker,  complaining  of  the  con 
duct  of  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor  of  that 
province,  in  respect  to  certain  private  letters  written  by 
them  to  their  correspondents  in  England,  and  praying 
that  they  may  be  removed  from  their  posts  in  that  go 
vernment  ;  his  Lordship  hath  presented  the  said  Ad 
dress  to  his  Majesty  ;  and  his  Majesty  having  signified 
his  pleasure,  that  the  said  Address  should  be  laid  before 
his  Majesty  in  his  Privy  Council,  1  am  directed  by  Lord 
Dartmouth  to  transmit  the  same  accordingly,  together 
with  a  copy  of  the  Agent's  letter  to  his  Lordship  accom 
panying  the  said  Address. 
1  am,  Sir, 

Your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

(Signed.)  J.  POWNALL. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      69 

To  the  KING'S  Most  Excellent  Majesty. 

MOST  GRACIOUS  SOVEREIGN  : — We,  your  Majesty's  loyal 
subjects,  the  Representatives  of  your  ancient  Colony  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  General  Court  legally  assem 
bled,  by  virtue  of  your  Majesty's  writ,  under  the  hand 
and  seal  of  the  Governor,  beg  leave  to  lay  this  our 
humble  Petition  before  your  Majesty. 

Nothing  but  the  sense  of  the  duty  we  owe  to  our  Sove 
reign,  and  the  obligation  we  are  under  to  consult  the 
peace  and  safety  of  the  Province,  could  induce  us  to  re 
monstrate  to  your  Majesty  the  Mai-Conduct  of  persons 
who  have  heretofore  had  the  confidence  and  esteem  of 
this  people  ;  and  whom  your  Majesty  has  been  pleased, 
from  the  purest  motives  of  rendering  your  subjects  happy, 
to  advance  to  the  highest  places  of  trust  and  authority  in 
the  Province. 

Your  Majesty's  humble  petitioners,  with  the  deepest 
concern  and  anxiety,  have  seen  the  discords  and  animosi 
ties  which  have  too  long  subsisted  between  your  subjects 
of  the  Parent  State  and  those  of  the  American  Colonies. 
And  we  have  trembled  with  apprehensions  that  the  con 
sequences,  naturally  arising  therefrom,  would  at  length 
prove  fatal  to  both  Countries. 

Permit  us  humbly  to  suggest  to  your  Majesty,  that 
your  subjects  here  have  been  inclined  to  believe,  that  the 
grievances  which  they  have  suffered,  and  still  continue 
to  suffer,  have  been  occasioned  by  your  Majesty's  minis 
ters  and  principal  servants  being,  unfortunately  for  us, 
misinformed  in  certain  facts  of  very  interesting  import 
ance  to  us.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  former  Assemblies 
have  from  time  to  time  prepared  a  true  state  of  facts  to 
be  laid  before  your  Majesty,  but  their  humble  remon- 


70     PROCEEDINGS   ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

strances  and  petitions,  it  is  presumed,  have  by  some 
means  been  prevented  from  reaching  your  Royal  hand. 

Your  Majesty's  petitioners  have  very  lately  had  before 
them  certain  papers,  from  which  they  humbty  conceive, 
it  is  most  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  there  has  long  been 
a  conspiracy  of  evil  men  in  this  province,  who  have  con 
templated  measures  and  formed  a  plan  to  advance  them 
selves  to  power,  and  raise  their  own  fortunes,  by  means 
destructive  of  the  charter  of  the  province,  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  quiet  of  the  nation,  and  to  the  annihilating 
of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  American  colonies. 

And  we  do,  with  all  due  submission  to  your  Majesty, 
beg  leave  particularly  to  complain  of  the  conduct  of  his 
Excellency,  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esquire,  Governor,  and 
the  Honorable  Andrew  Oliver,  Esquire,  Lieutenant  Go 
vernor,  of  this  your  Majesty's  province,  as  having  a 
natural  and  efficacious  tendency  to  interrupt  and  alienate 
the  affections  of  your  Majesty,  our  Rightful  Sovereign, 
from  this  your  Loyal  Province,  to  destroy  that  harmony 
and  good- will  between  Great  Britain  and  this  Colony, 
which  every  honest  subject  would  strive  to  establish,  to 
excite  the  resentment  of  the  British  Administration 
against  this  province,  to  defeat  the  endeavors  of  our 
agents  and  friends  to  serve  us  by  a  fair  representation  of 
our  state  of  facts,  to  prevent  our  humble  and  repeated 
petitions  from  reaching  the  ear  of  your  Majesty,  or  having 
their  desired  effect.  And  finally,  that  the  said  Thomas 
Hutchinson  and  Andrew  Oliver  have  been  among  the 
chief  instruments  in  introducing  a  fleet  and  an  army  into 
this  province,  to  establish  and  perpetuate  their  plans ; 
whereby  they  have  been  not  only  greatly  instrumental  of 
disturbing  the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  government, 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      71 

and  causing  unnatural  and  hateful  discords  and  animosi 
ties  between  the  several  parts  of  your  Majesty's  exten 
sive  dominions,  but  are  justly  chargeable  with  all  that 
corruption  of  morals  and  all  that  confusion,  misery,  and 
bloodshed,  which  have  been  the  natural  effects  of  posting 
an  army  in  a  populous  town. 

Wherefore  we  most  humbly  pray  that  your  Majesty 
would  be  pleased  to  remove  from  their  posts  in  this  go 
vernment,  the  said  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esquire,  and 
Andrew  Oliver,  Esquire,  who  have,  by  their  above-men 
tioned  conduct  and  otherwise,  rendered  themselves  justly 
obnoxious  to  your  loving  subjects,  and  entirely  lost  their 
confidence ;  and  place  such  good  and  faithful  men  in  their 
stead  as  your  Majesty  in  your  great  wisdom  shall  think 
fit. 

In  the  name  and  by  order  of  the  House  of  Represen 
tatives, 

THO.  GUSHING, 

Speaker. 


To  THE  LORDS'  COMMITTEE  OF  His  MAJESTY'S  PRIVY 
COUNCIL,  FOR  PLANTATION  AFFAIRS. 

The  Petition  of  Israel  Mauduit,  humbly  showeth  unto  your 

Lordships  : 

That  having  been  informed  that  an  Address  in  the 
name  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  his  Majesty's 
Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  has  been  presented  to  his 
Majesty,  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  Esq.,  praying  the  re 
moval  of  his  Majesty's  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Go- 


72    PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

vernor,  which  is  appointed  to  be  taken  into  consideration 
on  Tuesday  next.  Your  petitioner,  on  the  behalf  of  the 
said  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor,  humbly  prays, 
that  he  may  be  heard  by  counsel  in  relation  to  the  same, 
before  your  Lordships  shall  make  any  report  on  the  said 
Address. 

ISRAEL  MAUDUIT. 
Clemens  Lane,  Jan.  10,  1774. 


To  the  Printer  of  the  Public  Advertiser. 

gIR  : — Finding  that  two  gentlemen  have  been  unfortu 
nately  engaged  in  a  duel,  about  a  transaction  and  its  cir 
cumstances,  of  which  both  of  them  are  totally  ignorant 
and  innocent,  I  think  it  incumbent  on  me  to  declare  (for 
the  prevention  of  farther  mischief,  as  far  as  such  a  decla 
ration  may  contribute  to  prevent  it)  that  I  alone  am  the 
person  who  obtained  and  transmitted  to  Boston  the  let 
ters  in  question.  Mr.  W.  could  not  communicate  them, 
because  they  were  never  in  his  possession;  and  for  the 
same  reason,  they  could  not  be  taken  from  him  by  Mr. 
T.  They  were  not  of  the  nature  of  private  letters  be 
tween  friends.  They  were  written  by  public  officers  to 
persons  in  public  station,  on  public  affairs,  and  intended 
to  procure  public  measures  ;  they  were  therefore  handed 
to  other  public  persons  who  might  be  influenced  by  them 
to  produce  those  measures.  Their  tendency  was  to  in 
cense  the  mother  country  against  her  colonies,  and,  by 
the  steps  recommended,  to  widen  the  breach  which  they 
effected.  The  chief  caution  expressed  with  regard  to 
privacy,  was,  to  keep  their  contents  from  the  Colony 


PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      73 

Agents,  who,  the  writers  apprehended,  might  return  them, 
or  copies  of  them,  to  America.  That  apprehension  was, 
it  seems,  well  founded  ;  for  the  first  agent  who  Jaid  his 
hands  on  them,  thought  it  his  duty  to  transmit  them  to 
his  constituents. 

B.  FRANKLIN, 

Agent  for  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
Craven  Street,  Dec.  25,  1773. 


AT  THE  COUNCIL  CHAMBER,  Jan.  11,  1774. 

Present,  Lord  President,  Secretaries  of.  State,  and  many 
other  Lords. 

DR.  FRANKLIN  and  MR.  BOLLAN, 
MR.  MAUDUIT  and  MR.  WEDDERBURN. 

Dr.  Franklin's  Letter,  and  the  Address,  Mr.  Pownal's 
Letter,  and  Mr.  Mauduit's  Petition,  were  read. 

Mr.  Wedderburn.—  The  Address  mentions  certain 
papers.  I  would  wish  to  be  informed  what  are  those 
papers. 

Dr.  Franklin.— They  are  the  letters  of  Mr.  Hutchin- 
son  and  Mr.  Oliver. 

Court. — Have  you  brought  them  ? 

Dr  Franklin.— No ;  but  here  are  attested  copies. 

Court.— Do  you  not  mean  to  found  a  charge  upon 
them  ?  If  you  do,  you  must  produce  the  letters. 

Dr.  Franklin.— These  copies  are  attested  by  several 
gentlemen  at  Boston,  and  a  Notary  Public. 

Mr.  Wedderburn.—My  Lords,  we  shall  not  take  advan- 


74   PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

tage  of  any  imperfection  in  the  proof.  We  admit  that 
the  letters  are  Mr.  Hutchinson's  and  Mr.  Oliver's  hand 
writing,  reserving  to  ourselves  the  right  of  inquiring  how 
they  were  obtained. 

Dr.  Franklin. — I  did  not  expect  that  counsel  would 
have  been  employed  on  this  occasion. 

Court. — Had  you  not  notice  sent  you  of  Mr.  Mauduit's 
having  petitioned  to  be  heard  by  counsel  on  behalf  of 
the  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor  ? 

Dr.  Franklin. — I  did  receive  such  notice,  but  I  thought 
that  this  had  been  a  matter  of  politics  and  not  of  law, 
and  have  not  brought  any  counsel. 

Court. — Where  a  charge  is  brought,  the  parties  have  a 
right  to  be  heard  by  counsel  or  not,  as  they  choose.- 

Mr.  Mauduit. — My  Lords,  I  am  not  a  native  of  that 
country,  as  these  gentlemen  are.  I  well  know  Dr. 
Franklin's  abilities,  and  wish  to  put  the  defence  of  my 
friends  more  upon  a  parity  with  the  attack ;  he  will  not 
therefore  wonder  that  I  choose  to  appear  before  your 
Lordships  with  the  assistance  of  counsel.  My  friends, 
in  their  letters  to  me,  have  desired  (if  any  proceedings, 
as  they  say,  should  be  had  upon  this  Address)  that  they 
may  have  a  hearing  in  their  own  justification,  that  their 
innocence  may  be  fully  cleared,  and  their  honor  vindi 
cated  ;  and  have  made  provision  accordingly.  I  do  not 
think  myself  at  liberty,  therefore,  to  give  up  the  assist 
ance  of  my  counsel,  in  defending  them  against  this  un 
just  accusation. 

Court. — Dr.  Franklin  may  have  the  assistance  of  coun 
sel,  or  go  on  without  it,  as  he  shall  choose. 

Dr.  Franklin. — I  desire  to  have  counsel. 

Court. — What  time  shall  you  want  ? 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      75 

Dr.  Franklin. — Three  weeks. 

Ordered,  That  the  further  proceedings  be  on  Saturday, 
29th  instant. 


The  substance  of  that  part  of  Mr.  Wedderburns  Speech 
which  related  to  the  obtaining  and  sending  away  Mr. 
Whatelys  Letters. 

Counsel  for  the  Assembly. 
MR.  DUNNING,  MR.  JOHN  LEE. 

Counsel  for  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor. 
MR.  WEDDERBURN. 

AT  THE  COUNCIL  CHAMBER, 
Saturday,  Jan.  29,1774. 

Present^  Lord  President  and  thirty-five  Lords. 
MR.  WEDDERBURN. 

MY  LORDS  : — The  case  which  now  comes  before  your 
Lordships  is  justly  entitled  to  all  that  attention,  which, 
from  the  presence  of  so  great  a  number  of  Lords,  and  of 
so  large  an  audience,  it  appears  to  have  excited.  It  is  a 
question  of  no  less  magnitude,  than  whether  the  Crown 
shall  ever  have  it  in  its  power  to  employ  a  faithful  and 
steady  servant  in  the  administration  of  a  Colony. 

In  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Hutchinson,  his  Majesty's 
choice  followed  the  wishes  of  his  people ;  and  no  other 
man  could  have  been  named,  in  whom  so  many  favorable 
circumstances  concurred  to  recommend  him. 

A  native  of  the  country,  whose  ancestors  were  among 


76  PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

its  first  settlers.  A  gentleman,  who  had  for  many  years 
presided  in  their  law  courts;  of  tried  integrity,  of  con 
fessed  abilities;  and  who  had  long  employed  those 
abilities,  in  the  study  of  their  history  and  original  con 
stitution. 

My  Lords,  if  such  a  man,  without  their  attempting  to 
allege  one  single  act  of  misconduct,  during  the  four  years 
in  which  he  has  been  Governor,  is  to  be  borne  down  by 
the  mere  surmises  of  this  Address,  it  must  then  become 
a  case  of  still  greater  magnitude,  and  ever  be  a  matter  of 
doubt,  whether  the  Colony  shall  henceforward  pay  re 
spect  to  any  authority  derived  from  this  country. 

A  charge  of  some  sort,  however,  is  now  preferred 
against  these  gentlemen  by  this  Address  ;  and  the  prayer 
of  it  is,  that  his  Majesty  would  punish  them  by  a  dis 
graceful  removal. 

If  they  shall  appear  to  have  either  betrayed  the  rights 
of  the  Crown,  or  to  have  invaded  the  rights  of  the 
people,  your  Lordships  doubtless  will  then  advise  his 
Majesty  no  longer  to  trust  his  authority  with  those  who 
have  abused  it. 

But  if  no  crime  is  objected  to  them,  no  act  of  miscon 
duct  proved,  your  Lordships  will  then  do  the  justice  to 
their  characters,  which  every  innocent  man  has  a  right 
to  expect,  and  grant  them  that  protection  and  encourage 
ment,  which  is  due  to  officers  in  their  station. 

My  Lords,  this  is  not  the  place  to  give  any  opinion 
about  our  public  transactions  relating  to  the  Colonies, 
and  I  shall  carefully  avoid  it.  But  the  whole  foundation 
of  this  Address  rests  upon  events  of  five  and  six  years 
standing ;  and  this  makes  it  necessary  to  take  up  the 
historv  of  them  from  their  first  original. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      77 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1764, 

*  #  :fc  #  :fc  #  sfc  #  *  # 

My  Lords,  after  having  gone  through  the  history  of 
this  people,  for  the  last  ten  years,  and  shown  what  has 
been  the  behaviour  of  Mr.  Hutchinson  in  all  these  occur 
rences,  and  the  very  laudable  and  friendly  part  he  acted 
on  every  occasion  for  the  good  of  the  colony  ;  I  now 
come  to  consider  the  argument  upon  that  footing,  on  which 
my  learned  friends  have  chosen  to  place  it. 

They  have  read  to  your  Lordships  the  Assembly's  ad 
dress  ;  they  have  read  the  letters  ;  and  they  have  read 
the  censures  passed  on  them  :  and,  after  praying  the  re 
moval  of  his  Majesty's  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Go 
vernor,  they  now  tell  your  Lordships  :  There  is  no  cause 
to  try — there  is  no  charge — there  are  no  accusers — there 
are  no  proofs.  They  say  that  the  Governor  and  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  are  disliked  by  the  Assembly,  and  they 
ought  to  be  dismissed,  because  they  have  lost  the  confi 
dence  of  those  who  complain  against  them. 

My  Lords,  this  is  so  very  extraordinary  a  proceeding, 
that  1  know  of  no  precedent,  except  one  :  but  that,  I  con 
fess,  according  to  the  Roman  poet's  report,  is  a  case  in 
point  : 

Nunqnam,  si  quid  mihi  credis,  amavi 
Hnnc  hominem.     Sed  quo  cecidit  sub  crimine  ? — Quisnam 
Delator — Quibus  Indicibus  ? — Quo  Teste  probavit — 
Nil  horura — Verbosa  et  grandis  epistola  venit 
A  Capreis — Bene  habet :  nil  plus  interrogo. 

My  Lords,  the  only  purport  of  this  important  Address 
is,  that  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor  have  bst 
the  confidence  of  the  people,  upon  account  of  some 
papers,  which  they  have  voted  to  be  unfriendly  to  them, 


78    PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

and  that  they  have  been  amongst  the  chief  instruments  in  in- 
froducing  a  fleet  and  army  into  the  province.  Your  Lord 
ships  have  heard  the  letters  read,  and  are  the  best  judges 
of  their  tendency.  I  can  appeal  to  your  Lordships,  that 
it  was  not  these  letters,  but  their  own  ill  conduct,  which 
made  it  necessary  to  order  the  four  regiments.  In  point 
of  time  it  was  impossible  :  for  in  Mr.  Hutchinson's  very 
first  letter,  it  appears,  that  they  had  an  expectation  of 
troops.  And  they  arrived  in  three  months  after.  I 
could  appeal  too  to  their  own  knowledge :  for  the  printed 
collection  of  Sir  Francis  Bernard's  and  General  Gage's, 
&c.,  letters  were  before  them,  which  indisputably  show 
the  direct  contrary. 

But  as  my  learned  friends  have  not  attempted  to  point 
out  the  demerits  of  these  letters,  I  need  not  enter  into 
the  defence  of  them.  To  call  them  only  innocent  letters, 
would  be  greatly  to  depreciate  them.  They  contain  the 
strongest  proofs  of  Mr.  Hutchinson's  good  sense,  his 
great  moderation,  and  his  sincere  regard  to  the  welfare  of 
that  his  native  province.  Yet,  for  these  it  is,  that  they 
tell  us  he  has  lost  the  confidence  of  the  people. 

My  Lords,  there  cannot  be  a  more  striking  instance  of 
the  force  of  truth,  than  what  the  Committee,  who  drew 
up  these  papers,  exemplify  in  their  conduct.  In  their 
second  resolution,  they  acknowledge  the  high  character, 
in  which  Mr.  Hutchinson  stands,  upon  account  of  his 
eminent  abilities.  In  the  very  outset  of  their  address, 
they  acknowledge  the  good  use  which  he  had  made  of 
those  abilities  :  for  he  could  not  have  enjoyed  their  con 
fidence,  as  they  say  he  heretofore  did,  if  he  had  made  a 
bad  one.  They  acknowledge  that  this  confidence  sub 
sisted,  at  least,  till  the  time  of  his  being  made  Governor. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      7(J 

Else  they  could  not  express  their  thankfulness  to  his  Ma 
jesty  as  they  do,  and  applaud  the  appointment  of  him, 
as  proceeding  from  the  purest  motives  of  rendering  his  sub 
jects  happy. 

In  the  height  of  their  ill-will,  therefore,  to  Mr. 
Hutchinson,  truth  looks  his  enemies  full  in  the  face,  and 
extorts  from  them  a  confession  of  his  merit,  even  in  the 
very  act  of  accusing  him. 

But,  whatever  be  the  censures  which  the  Assembly 
may  have  been  induced  to  pass  on  him,  I  will  now  give 
your  Lordships  a  proof  of  his  enjoying  the  people's  con 
fidence,  to  the  very  time  of  the  arrival  of  these  letters. 

Every  one  knows  that  there  are  few  subjects  in  which 
the  people  of  the  colonies  have  more  eagerly  interested 
themselves,  than  in  settling  the  boundary  lines  between 
the  several  provinces.  Some  of  your  Lordships  may  re 
member  the  long  hearings  which  have  been  held  at  this 
Board  upon  these  disputes.  Of  late,  they  have  taken 
upon  themselves  to  fix  the  limits  of  the  King's  charters. 
An  agreement  was  made  between  the  two  Assemblies  of 
New  York  and  Massachusetts  Bay,  that  they  should  each 
appoint  their  Commissaries,  to  meet  and  settle  the  boun 
dary  line  between  the  two  provinces.  Both  of  them  no 
doubt  looked  out  for  the  best  men  they  had  for  that  pur 
pose.  But  the  people  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  after  they 
had  chosen  their  Commissaries,  still  thought  that  they 
could  more  securely  trust  their  interests  in  their  hands, 
if  Mr.  Hutchinson  would  go  along  with  them.  To  him 
they  had  been  used  to  look,  as  the  man  who  best  knew 
the  history  of  their  first  settlements ;  him  they  con 
sidered  as  the  ablest  defender  of  the  province's  rights  : 
and  had  ever  found  in  him  the  most  zealous  affection  for 


80     PROCEEDINGS   ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

their  welfare.  The  party  leaders  perhaps  might  have 
been  content  to  lose  to  the  province  any  number  of  acres 
or  a  few  townships,  rather  than  owe  to  Mr.  Hutchinson 
the  preservation  of  them.  But  they  did  not  dare  to  set 
their  faces  against  the  general  sense  of  the  people.  The 
Governor  was  therefore  requested  to  go  with  the  Commis 
saries.  He  did  so,  and  settled  for  them  a  much  better 
line  than  they  had  ever  expected.  And  the  New  York 
and  their  own  Commissaries,  both  of  them  acknowledged 
that  the  advantage  gained  to  the  province,  was  chiefly 
owing  to  the  superior  knowledge  and  abilities  of  Mr. 
Hutchinson. 

Thus  far,  then,  the  Governor's  character  stands  fair 
and  unimpeached.  Whatever,  therefore,  be  the  founda 
tion  of  this  Address  for  his  removal,  it  must  be  something 
done  by  him,  or  known  of  him,  since  his  return  from  this 
service  just  before  the  arrival  of  these  letters.  Your  Lord 
ships  will  observe  that  his  enemies  don't  attempt  to  point  out 
a  single  action,  during  the  four  years  in  which  he  has  been 
Governor,  as  a  subject  of  complaint.'  The  whole  of  this 
Address  rests  upon  the  foundation  of  these  letters,  writ 
ten  before  the  time  when  either  of  these  gentlemen  were 
possessed  of  the  offices,  from  which  the  Assembly  now 
ask  their  removal.  They  owe  therefore  all  the  ill-will 
which  has  been  raised  against  them,  and  the  loss  of  that 
confidence  which  the  Assembly  themselves  acknowledge 
they  had  heretofore  enjoyed,  to  Dr.  Franklin's  good  office 
in  sending  back  these  letters  to  Boston.  Dr.  Franklin 
therefore  stands  in  the  light  of  the  first  mover  and  prime 
conductor  of  this  whole  contrivance  against  his  Majesty's 
two  Governors  ;  and  having  by  the  help  of  his  special 
confidents  and  party  leaders,  first  made  the  Assembly  his 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      81 

Agents  in  carrying  on  his  own  secret  designs,  he  now  ap 
pears  before  your  Lordships  to  give  the  finishing  stroke 
to  the  work  of  his  own  hands. 

How  these  letters  came  into  the  possession  of  any  one 
but  the  right  owners,  is  still  a  mystery  for  Dr.  Franklin 
to  explain.  They  who  know  the  affectionate  regard 
which  the  Whatelys  had  for  each  other,  and  the  tender 
concern  they  felt  for  the  honor  of  their  brother's  memory, 
as  well  as  their  own,  can  witness  the  distresses  which 
this  occasioned.  My  Lords,  the  late  Mr.  Whately  was 
most  scrupulously  cautious  about  his  letters.  We  lived 
for  many  years  in  the  strictest  intimacy  ;  and  in  all  those 
years  I  never  saw  a  single  letter  written  to  him.  These 
letters,  I  believe,  were  in  his  custody  at  his  death.  Arid 
I  as  firmly  believe,  that  without  fraud,  they  could  not 
have  been  got  out  of  the  custody  of  the  person  whose 
hands  they  fell  into.  His  brothers  little  wanted  this  ad 
ditional  aggravation  to  the  loss  of  him.  Called  upon  by 
their  correspondents  at  Boston  ;  anxious  for  vindicating 
their  brother's  honor  and  their  own,  they  enquired  ;  gave 
to  the  parties  aggrieved  all  the  information  in  their  power ; 
but  never  accused. 

Your  Lordships  know  the  train  of  mischiefs  which  fol 
lowed.  But  wherein  had  my  late  worthy  friend  or  his 
family  offended  Dr.  Franklin,  that  he  should  first  do  so 
great  an  injury  to  the  memory  of  the  dead  brother,  by 
secreting  and  sending  away  his  letters ;  and  then,  con 
scious  of  what  he  had  done,  should  keep  himself  con 
cealed,  till  he  had  nearly,  very  nearly,  occasioned  the 
murder  of  the  other. 

After  the  mischiefs  of  this  concealment  had  been  left 
for  five^months  to  have  their  full  operation,  at  length 


82      PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE   ADDRESS   OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

comes  out  a  letter,  which  it  is  impossible  to  read  without 
horror  ;  expressive  of  the  coolest  and  most  deliberate 
malevolence.  My  Lords,  what  poetic  fiction  only  had 
penned  for  the  breast  of  a  cruel  African,  Dr.  Franklin  has 
realized,  and  transcribed  from  his  oivn.  His  too  is  the 
language  of  a  Zanga : 

"  Know  then  'twas I. 

"  I  forged  the  letter — I  disposed  the  picture — 

"  I  hated,  I  despised,  and  I  destroy." 

What  are  the  motives  he  assigns  for  this  conduct,  I 
shall  now  more  deliberately  consider. 

My  Lords,  if  there  be  any  thing  held  sacred  in  the  in 
tercourse  of  mankind,  it  is  their  private  letters  of  friend 
ship.  If  there  can  be  any  such  private  letters,  those 
which  passed  between  the  late  Mr.  Whately  and  Mr. 
Oliver  are  such.  The  friendship  between  the  two  fami 
lies  is  of  thirty  years'  stand  ing— during  all  that  time  there 
has  been  kept  up  an  intercourse  of  letters ;  first  with  Mr. 
Whately,  the  father,  and  then  with  the  late  Mr.  Thomas 
Whately,  the  son.  In  the  course  of  this  friendship,  a 
variety  of  good  offices  have  passed  between  the  two  fam 
ilies  :  one  of  these  fell  within  the  period  of  these  letters. 
Upon  Mr.  Oliver's  daughter's  coming  to  England  with  her 
husband  upon  business,  they  were  received  at  Nonsuch  by 
Mrs.  Whately  and  her  sons,  as  the  son  and  daughter  of 
their  old  friend  and  correspondent.  And  accordingly  your 
Lordships  will  find,  that  one  part  of  these  letters  is  to 
return  thanks  for  the  civilities  shown  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Spooner  at  Nonsuch. 

These  are  the  letters  which  Dr.  Franklin  treats  as  pub 
lic  letters,  and  has  thought  proper  to  secrete  them  for  his 
own  private  purpose.  How  he  got  at  them,  or  in  whose 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      83 

hands  they  were  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Whately's  death,  the 
Doctor  has  not  yet  thought  proper  to  tell  us.  Till  he  do, 
he  wittingly  leaves  the  world  at  liberty  to  conjecture  about 
them  as  they  please,  and  to  reason  upon  those  conjectures. 
But  let  the  letters  have  been  lodged  where  they  may, 
from  the  hour  of  Mr.  Thomas  Whately's  death,  they  be 
came  the  property  of  his  brother  and  of  the  Whately 
family.  Dr.  Franklin  could  not  but  know  this,  and  that 
no  one  had  a,  right  to  dispose  of  them  but  they  only. 
Other  receivers  of  goods  dishonorably  come  by,  may 
plead  as  a  pretence  for  keeping  them,  that  they  don't 
know  who  are  the  proprietors.  In  this  case  there  was 
not  the  common  excuse  of  ignorance  ;  the  Doctor  knew 
whose  they  were,  and  yet  did  not  restore  them  to  the 
right  owner.  This  property  is  as  sacred  and  as  precious 
to  gentlemen  of  integrity,  as  their  family  plate  or  jewels 
are.  And  no  man  who  knows  the  Whatelys  will  doubt 
but  that  they  would  much  sooner  have  chosen,  that  any 
person  should  have  taken  their  plate,  and  sent  it  to  Hol 
land  for  his  avarice,  than  that  he  should  have  secreted 
the  letters  of  their  friends,  their  brother's  friend,  and  their 
father's  friend,  and  sent  them  away  to  Boston,  to  gratify 
an  enemy's  malice. 

The  reasons  assigned  for  this,  are  as  extraordinary  as 
the  transaction  itself  is  :  They  are  public  letters,  to  pub 
lic  persons,  on  public  affairs,  and  intended  to  produce 
public  measures.  This,  my  Lords,  is  the  first ;  and  the 
next  reason  assigned  for  publishing  them  is,  because 
the  writers  desire  that  the  contents  of  them  should  be 
kept  secret. 

If  these  are  public  letters,  I  know  not  what  can  be 
reckoned  private.  If  a  letter  whose  first  business  is  to 


84    PROCEEDINGS    ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

return  thanks  to  an  old  lady  of  seventy,  for  her  civilities 
at  Nonsuch,  be  not  a  private  letter,  it  will  be  necessary 
that  every  man  should  be  particularly  careful  of  his 
papers  ;  for,  after  this,  there  never  can  be  wanting  a  pre 
tence  for  making  them  public.* 

But  says  the  Doctor,  "  They  tvere  zvrittcn  by  public  offi 
cers"  Can  then  a  man  in  a  public  station  have  no  pri 
vate  friends,  and  write  no  private  letters?  Will  Dr. 
Franklin  avow  the  principle,  that  he  has  a  right  to  make 
all  private  letters  of  your  Lordships  his  own,  and  to  apply 
them  to  such  uses  as  will  best  answer  the  purposes  of 
party  malevolence  ?  Whatever  may  have  been  the  con 
fidence  heretofore  placed  in  him,  such  a  declaration  will 
not  surely  contribute  to  increase  it. 

But  they  were  written  to  persons  in  public  stations. 
Just  the  contrary  to  this  appears  to  have  been  the  case. 
Dr.  Franklin  is  too  well  acquainted  with  our  history  not 
to  know  that  Mr.  Whately,  during  both  these  years,  and 
for  two  years  before  and  after,  was  only  a  private  Mem 
ber  of  Parliament ;  and,  as  Mr.  Oliver  justly  observes  in 
a  letter  of  his,  They  at  Boston  could  not  be  supposed  to  apply 
to  him  as  having  an  interest  with  the  Ministers,  when  they 
kneiv  that  he  was  all  that  time  voting  in  opposition  to  them. 

Does  then  the  Doctor  mean,  that  his  being  a  Member 
of  Parliament  placed  him  in  a  public  station  ?  And  will 
he  then  avow,  that  a  gentleman's  being  in  Parliament  is 
ground  sufficient  for  him  to  make  his  letters  lawful  plun 
der,  and  to  send  them  to  his  enemies  ? 

But  they  were  written  on  public  a/airs.     A  very  grievous 

*  The  reader  will  be  pleased  to  observe,  that  the  question  here  is  not 
whether  they  be  good  letters  or  bud  ones,  but  whether  they  arc  public  letters 
or  private. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      85 

offence  !  But  it  is  a  crime  of  which  probably  we  all  of  us 
have  been  guilty,  and  ought  not  surely,  for  that  only,  to 
forfeit  the  common  rights  of  humanity. 

But  they  were  intended  to  procure  public  measures.  And 
does  not  every  man,  who  writes  in  confidence  to  his  friend 
upon  political  subjects,  lament  any  thing  which  he  thinks 
to  be  wrong,  and  wish  to  have  it  amended  ?  And  is  this 
a  crime  of  so  heinous  a  nature,  as  to  put  Mr.  Whatety's 
friends  out  of  the  common  protection,  and  to  give  to  Dr. 
Franklin  a  right  to  hang  them  up  to  party  rage,  and  to 
expose  them,  for  what  he  knew,  to  the  danger  of  having 
their  houses  a  second  time  pulled  down  by  popular  fury? 

But  the  writers  of  them  desired  secresy.  True,  they  did 
so.  And  what  man  is  there,  who,  when  he  is  writing  in 
confidence,  does  not  wish  for  the  same  thing  ?  Does  not 
every  man  say  things  to  a  friend,  which  he  would  not 
choose  to  have  published  to  other  people,  and  much  less 
to  his  enemies  ?  Would  letters  of  friendship  be  letters  of 
friendship,  if  they  contained  nothing  but  such  indifferent 
things  as  might  be  said  to  all  the  world  ? 

If  this  is  the  case  at  all  times  with  the  confidential  in 
tercourse  of  friends,  in  times  of  party  violence,  there 
must  be  a  thousand  things  said  in  letters,  which,  though 
innocent  in  themselves,  either  by  rival  malice  or  party 
prejudice,  may  be  turned  to  a  very  different  construction. 
These  letters  themselves  have  been  distorted  in  this 
manner ;  and  some  expressions  in  them  cannot  possibly 
be  understood,  without  knowing  the  correspondent  letters 
to  which  they  refer.  And  when  a  factious  party  had  got 
possession  of  the  town  meetings,  and  led  the  Assembly 
into  what  resolutions  they  pleased,  and  were  watching 
for  any  pretence  to  abuse  and  insult  their  Governors, 


86      PROCEEDINGS   ON    THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

is  it  at  all  to  be  wondered,  that  they  did  not  wish  to 
have  the  contents  of  their  letters  told  to  their  enemies  ? 
When  we  read  in  these  letters  such  passages  as  these : 
"  If  there  be  no  necessity  for  it,  I  think  it  would  be  best 
it  should  not  be  known  that  this  intelligence  conies  from 
me."  Or  this  :  "  I  have  wrote  with  freedom,  in  confi 
dence  of  my  name's  not  being  used  on  the  occasion.  For 
though  I  have  wrote  nothing  but  what,  in  my  conscience, 
I  think  an  American  may,  upon  just  principles,  advance, 
and  what  a  servant  of  the  crown  ought,  upon  all  proper 
occasions,  to  suggest;  yet  the  many  prejudices  I  have  to 
combat  with,  may  render  it  unfit  it  should  be  made  pub 
lic."  Or  this  of  Mr.  Hutchinson's  :  "  I  must  beg  the 
favor  of  you  to  keep  secret  every  thing  I  write,  until  we 
are  in  a  more  settled  state ;  for  the  party  here,  either  by 
their  Agent,  or  by  some  of  their  emissaries  in  London, 
have  sent  them  every  report  or  rumor  of  the  contents  of 
letters  wrote  from  hence.  I  hope  we  shall  see  better 
times  both  here  and  in  England."  Or  this  again  of  Mr. 
Oliver's:  "/  have  wrote  with  freedom;  I  consider  I  am 
writing  to  a  friend;  and  that  I  am  perfectly  safe  in  opening 
myself  to  you"  Upon  reading  these  passages,  which  are 
all  there  are  of  this  kind,  a  man  whose  heart  was  cast  in 
the  common  mould  of  humanity,  would  have  been  apt  to 
say  :  These  are  letters  irregularly  obtained  ;  the  writers 
desire  that  every  thing  they  write  should  be  kept  secret ; 
they  belong  to  Mr.  Whately,  who  never  injured  me  ;  I 
will  therefore  return  them  to  the  right  owner.  Dr. 
Franklin's  reasoning  is  of  a  very  different  cast.  After 
having  just  before  told  us  :  These  are  public  letters,  sent 
to  public  persons,  designed  for  public  purposes,  and  there 
fore  I  have  a  right  to  betray  them;  he  now  says,  These 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      87 

are  letters  which  the  writers  desire  may  be  kept  secret, 
and  therefore  I  will  send  them  to  their  enemies.  Pre 
pared  on  both  sides  for  his  rival's  overthrow,  he  makes 
that  an  argument  for  doing  him  hurt,  which  any  other 
man  would  consider  as  a  principal  aggravation  of  the  in 
justice  of  it. 

But,  if  the  desiring  secresy  be  the  proof,  and  the  mea 
sure  of  guilt,  what  then  are  we  to  think  of  Dr.  Franklin's 
case;  whose  whole  conduct  in  this  affair  has  been  secret 
and  mysterious ;  and  who,  through  the  whole  course  of 
it,  has  discovered  the  utmost  solicitude  to  keep  it  so  ? 
My  Lords,  my  accounts  say,  that  when  these  letters  were 
sent  over  to  Boston,  so  very  desirous  was  Dr.  Franklin 
of  secresy,  that  he  did  not  choose  to  set  his  name  to  the 
letter  which  accompanied  them.  This  anonymous  letter 
expressly  ordered,  that  it  should  be  shown  to  none  but 
to  a  junto  of  six  persons.  If  the  Doctor  choose  it,  1 
will  name  the  six.  The  direction  of  every  letter  was 
erased,  and  strict  orders  were  given  that  they  should  be 
carefully  returned  again  to  London.  The  manner  in 
which  they  were  brought  into  the  Assembly,  all  showed 
the  most  earnest  desire  of  concealment.  Under  these 
mysterious  circumstances  have  the  Assembly  passed  their 
censures ;  and  voted  this  Address  to  his  Majesty  against 
Mr.  Hutchinson  and  Mr.  Oliver,  upon  account  of  a  parcel 
of  letters  directed  to  somebody,  they  know  not  whom  ; 
and  sent  from  somebody,  they  know  not  where.  And 
Dr.  Franklin  now  appears  before  your  Lordships,  wrapt 
up  in  impenetrable  secresy,  to  support  a  charge  against 
his  Majesty's  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor;  and 
expects  that  your  Lordships  should  advise  the  punishing 


88      PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE   ADDRESS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

them,  upon  account  of  certain  letters,  which   he  will  not 
produce,  and  which  he  dares  not  tell  how  he  obtained. 

But  the  Doctor  says,  he  transmitted  them  to  his  con 
stituents. 

That  Dr.  Franklin  sent  these  letters  to  such  persons  as 
he  thought  would  in  some  way  or  other  bring  them  into 
the  Assembly,  may  be  true.  And  accordingly,  after  an 
alarm  of  some  dreadful  discovery,  these  letters  were  pro 
duced  by  one  single  person,  pretending  to  be  under  an 
injunction  to  observe  the  strictest  secresy,  and  to  suffer 
no  copies  to  be  taken  of  them.  After  allowing  two  or 
three  days  for  fame  to  amplify,  and  for  party  malice  to 
exaggerate ;  and  after  having  thereby  raised  a  general 
prejudice  against  the  Governor ;  at  length  another  Mem 
ber  tells  the  Assembly,  that  he  had  received  from  an  un 
known  hand  a  copy  of  the  letters  ;  and  wished  to  have 
that  copy  compared  and  authenticated  with  the  originals. 
After  this,  when  they  had  brought  the  Council  into  their 
measures,  they  then  found  their  powers  enlarged  ;  and 
that  they  were  at  liberty  to  show  them  to  any  one,  pro 
vided  they  did  not  suffer  them  to  go  out  of  their  hands  ; 
and  the  King's  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor  were 
permitted  to  look  upon  them  only  in  this  opprobrious 
manner,  in  order  to  render  the  indignity  so  much  the 
more  offensive. 

This  Dr.  Franklin  may  call  transmitting  the  letters  to 
his  constituents  ;  and  upon  those  who  know  nothing  of 
the  course  of  these  proceedings,  may  easily  impose  the 
belief  of  it.  But  your  Lordships  will  readily  see,  and 
every  man  who  has  been  an  agent  very  well  knows,  that 
this  is  not  what  is  meant  by  transmitting  to  his  constitu 
ents.  My  Lords,  when  an  agent  means  to  write  to  the 


PROCEEDINGS    ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      89 

Assembly,  he  addresses  his  letter  to  the  Speaker,  to  be 
communicated  to  the  House.  And  the  Doctor  knows 
that  there  are  many  articles  in  the  Journals  of  this  tenor: 
"  A  letter  from  Dr.  Franklin  to  the  Speaker,  was  read." 

But  the  course  taken  with  these  letters  was  just  the 
reverse  of  this.      The  letter  which  came  with   them  was 
anonymous  ;   though  the  hand  was  well  known  :  too  well 
perhaps  known  to  the  selected  few,  who  only  were  to  be 
allowed  the  sight  of  it.      Since  therefore   the  Doctor  has 
told  us  that  he  transmitted  these  letters  to  his  constitu 
ents,  we  know  now  who  they  are.     His  constituents,  b}^ 
his  own  account,  must  be  this  particular  junto  ;  for  to 
them,  and  them  only,  were  the  letters  communicated.    Dr. 
Franklin  did  not  communicate  them,  as  their  agent,  to  the 
Assembly;  for  whatever  may  have  been  the  whispers  of 
this  junto,  the  Assembly,  as  an  Assembly,  does  not  to 
this  day  know  by  whom  the  letters  were  sent.     And.  so 
little  do  these  innocent,  well  meaning  farmers,  which  com 
pose   the  bulk  of  the   Assembly,  know    what  they   are 
about,  that  by  the  arts  of  these  leaders,  they  have   been 
brought  to  vote  an  Address  to  his  Majesty  to  dismiss  his 
Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor,  founded  upon  certain 
papers,  which  they  have  not  named  ;  sent  to  them  from 
somebody,  they  know  not  whom  ;  and  originally  directed 
to  somebody,  they  cannot  tell  where  :  for,  my  Lords,  my 
accounts  say,  that  it  did  not  appear   to   the   House  that 
these  letters  had  ever  been  in  London. 

I  have  pointed  out  to  your  Lordships  the  manner  in 
which  this  conspiracy  against  the  Governor  was  conducted, 
with  all  its  circumstances,  as  the  letters  from  Boston  re 
late  them.  And  from  this  account  your  Lordships  will 
not  wonder  that  I  consider  Dr.  Franklin  not  so  much  in 


90      PROCEEDINGS    ON    THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

the  light  of  an  agent  for  the  Assembly's  purpose,  as  in 
that  of  a  first  mover  and  prime  conductor  of  it  for  his 
own  ;  not  as  the  Assembly's  agent  for  avenging  this 
dreadful  conspiracy  of  Mr.  Hutchirison  against  his  native 
country  ;  but  as  the  actor  and  secret  spring,  by  which  all 
the  Assembly's  motions  were  directed  :  the  inventor  and 
first  planner  of  the  whole  contrivance.  He  it  was  that 
received  and  sent  away  Mr.  Whately's  letters.  By  what 
means  he  laid  his  hands  on  them,  he  does  not  say  ;  till  he 
do,  he  leaves  us  at  liberty  to  suppose  the  worst ;  I.  would 
wish  to  suggest  the  best.  One  case  only  must  be  ex- 
cepted  ;  Dr.  Franklin  will  not  add  another  injur\%  and 
say  to  the  representative*  of  the  Whately  family,  that 
they  were  any  of  them  consenting  to  the  perfidy.  And 
yet,  my  Lords,  nothing  but  that  consent  could  put  him 
honorably  in  possession  of  them,  and  much  less  give 
him  a  right  to  apply  them  to  so  unwarrantable  a  pur 
pose. 

My  Lords,  there  is  no  end  of  this  mischief.  I  have 
now  in  my  hand  an  expostulatory  letter  from  a  Mr. 
Roome,  not  a  native  of  America,  but  sent  from  London  to 
Ilhode  Island,  to  collect  in  and  sue  for  large  outstanding 
debts  there.  This  poor  man,  in  a  familiar  letter  to  a  friend 
in  the  same  province,  expresses  a  just  indignation  at  the 
difficulties  he  met  with  in  executing  his  trust,  from  the 
iniquitous  tendency  of  their  laws,  and  of  the  proceedings 
of  their  courts,  to  defraud  their  English  creditors  ;  and 
then  gives  him  an  invitation  to  come  and  spend  some 
time  with  him  at  his  country  house,  and  catch  perch  and 
be  of  their  fishing  party.  For  this  letter,  the  Assembly 

*  Mr.  Whately  intended,  if  he  had  been  well  enough,  to  have  been  at  the 
Council. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      91 

brought  him  under  examination,  and  committed  him  to 
prison,  because  he  would  not  answer  to  his  printed  name 
at  the  end  of  one  of  the  letters  in  this  book.*  Upon  this 
occasion  he  writes  a,  letter  to  one  of  his  employers,  with 
whom  he  had  served  his  clerkship  here  in  London,  expos 
tulating  on  the  cruelty  and  injustice  of  the  executors  suf 
fering  their  dead  brother's  papers  to  be  applied  to  such  a 
purpose.  For  he,  my  Lords,  had  no  conception  that  any 
one  else  could  have  made  this  use  of  letters  which  did 
not  belong  to  him.  Mr.  Roome  had  heard  that  the  Bos 
ton  letters  had  all  been  sent  back  again  to  London  ;  and 
knew  that  their  Speaker  was  directed  to  procure  his 
original  letter,  in  order  to  their  proceeding  against  him 
still  more  severely.  The  merchant  here  came  with  this 
letter  to  a  friend  of  Mr.  Whately's,  desiring  that  he 
would  go  with  him  to  Mr.  Whately,  and  join  in  entreat 
ing  him  not  to  send  back  the  letter  to  their  Speaker, 
which  would  oblige  him,  he  writes,  either  to  fly  the  Pro 
vince,  or  else  to  suffer  a  long  imprisonment.  My  Lords, 
Mr.  Whately's  friend  had  seen  too  much  of  the  anguish 
of  mind  under  which  he  had  been  suffering  for  the  five 
months  since  this  discovery.  He  knew  that  it  would 
be  giving  him  another  stab  to  suffer  a  stranger  abruptly 
to  put  this  letter  into  his  hands ;  he  informed  the  mer 
chant  of  the  state  of  the  affair,  and  prevented  his  going 
to  him. 

But  what  had  this  poor  man  done  to  Dr.  Franklin,  that 
his  letter  should  be  sent  back  too?  Mr.  Hutchinson  and 
Mr.  Oliver  were  public  persons,  and  their  letters,  accord 
ing  to  the  Doctor's  new  code  of  morality,  may  be  lawful 
prize.  But  Mr.  Roome's  is  a  name  we  had  never  heard 

*  The  Book  of  Letter?,  printed  at  Boston,  then  in  his  hand. 


92    PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

of.  Was  he  too  a  man  in  a  public  station  ?  His  friend, 
to  whom  he  sent  this  invitation  to  come  a  fishing  with  him, 
was  he  a  public  person?  Could  Mr.  Roome,  when  he  was 
writing  to  New  London,  imagine  that  he  was  writing  a 
letter  to  be  shown  to  the  King;  and  to  alienate  his  affec 
tions  from  that  loyal  people  ?  Did  the  sailing  of  the  four 
regiments  to  Boston  depend  upon  the  intelligence  of  a 
man  at  Narragansett  ?  The  writer  of  this  letter  could 
not  nave  a  thought  of  its  producing  public  measures. 
Surely  then  the  returning  of  this  letter  might  have  been 
omitted  ;  and  this  poor  man  at  least  might  have  been 
spared.  But  all  men.  be  they  in  public  stations  or  in 
private,  be  they  great  or  small,  all  are  prey  that  unfor 
tunately  fall  into  Dr.  Franklin's  hands  :  he  wantonly  and 
indiscriminately  sends  back  the  letters  of  all;  unfeeling 
of  the  reflection  which  must  arise  in  every  other  breast, 
that  what  is  sport  to  him  may  be  imprisonment  and  death 
to  them. 

But  under  all  this  weight  of  suspicion,  in  the  full  view 
of  all  the  mischievous  train  of  consequences  which  have 
followed  from  this  treachery,  (for  such  there  must  be 
somewhere,  though  Dr.  Franklin  does  not  choose  to  let 
us  know  where  to  fix  it,)  with  a  whole  province  set  in  a 
flame  ;  with  an  honest,  innocent  man  thrown  into  jail,  and 
calling  on  Mr.  Whately  not  to  furnish  the  means  of  fixing 
him  there  ;  with  a  worthy  family  distressed,  in  the  re 
flections  cast  on  their  own  character,  and  in  the  sufferings 
brought  upon  their  friends  and  correspondents  ;  with  the 
memory  of  one  brother  greatly  injured,  and  the  life  of 
another  greatly  endangered  ;  with  all  this  weight  of  sus 
picion,  and  with  all  this  train  of  mischiefs  before  his 
eyes,  Dr.  Franklin's  apathy  sets  him  quite  at  ease,  arid 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      93 

he  would  have  us  think  that  he  has  done  nothing  more 
than  what  any  other  Colony  Agent  would  have  done.  Tie 
happened  only  to  be  the  first  Colony  Agent  who  laid  his 
hands  on  them,  and  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  transmit 
them  to  his  constituents. 

My  Lords,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  knowing  several  very 
respectable  gentlemen,  who  have  been  Colony  Agents,  and 
cannot  but  feel  a  little  concern  at  seeing  this  strange  im 
putation  cast  on  that  character.  I  have  heard  the  senti 
ments  of  some  of  them.  Upon  being  asked,  whether,  if 
they  had  laid  their  hands  upon  another  gentleman's  let 
ters,  they  would  have  thought  it  their  duty  to  make  a 
like  use  of  them  :  my  Lords,  they  received  the  proposal 
with  horror.  One  of  them  said,  it  was  profaning  the 
word  duty  to  apply  it  to  such  a  purpose;  another,  that  if 
he  had  been  their  Agent,  he  would  sooner  have  cut  off 
his  right  hand  than  have  done  such  a  thing. 

My  Lords,  Dr.  Franklin's  mind  may  have  been  so 
possessed  with  the  idea  of  a  Gre?it  American  Republic, 
that  he  may  easily  slide  into  the  language  of  the  minister 
of  a  foreign  independent  state.*  A  foreign  Ambassador 
when  residing  here,  just  before  the  breaking  out  of  a  war, 
or  upon  particular  occasions,  may  bribe  a  villain  to  steal 
or  betray  any  state  papers ;  he  is  under  the  command  of 
another  state,  and  is  not  amenable  to  the  laws  of  the 
country  where  he  resides;  and  the  secure  exemption 
from  punishment  may  induce  a  laxer  morality. 

But  Dr.  Franklin,  whatever  he  ma}r  teach  the  people 
at  Boston,  while  he  is  here  at  least  is  a  subject  ;  and  if  a 
subject  injure  a  subject,  he  is  answerable  to  the  law. 

*  See  also  his  Letter  to  Lord   Dartmouth. 


94      PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE   ADDRESS   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

And  the  Court  of  Chancery  will  not  much  attend  to  his 
new  self-created  importance. 

But,  my  Lords,  the  rank  in  which  Dr.  Franklin  appears, 
is»not  even  that  of  a  Province  Ag^nt :  he  moves  in  a  very 
inferior  orbit.     An  agent  for  a  province,  your  Lordships 
know,  is  a  person  chosen  by  the  joint  act  of  the  Governor, 
Council,  and  Assembly  ;   after  which,  a  commission  is  is 
sued  by  the  Secretary,  under  the  province  seal,  appoint 
ing  him  to  that  office.      Such  a  real  Colony  Agent,  being 
made  by  the  joint  concurrence  of  all  the   three   branches 
of  the  Government,  will  think  it  his  duty  to  consult  the 
joint  service  of  all  the  three  ;  and   to   contribute  all  he 
can  to    the   peace,  harmony,  and   orderly  government  of 
the  whole,  as  well  as  to  the  general  welfare  and  prosperity 
of  the  province.      This  at  least  is  what  I  learn   from  the 
copy   books  of  two  gentlemen,  who  at  different  periods 
were  Agents  for  this  very  Colony.     But  Dr.  Franklin's 
appointment  seems  to  have  been    made  in  direct   opposi 
tion  to  all  these.     Upon  a   message  from  the  Council  to 
the  Assembly,  desiring  that  they  would  join  in  the  choice 
of  an  Agent  for   the    Colony,  they  came  to  a  resolution, 
that  they  would  not  join  with  the  honorable  Board  in  the 
choice  of   such  an    Agent ;  but  resolved   that   they  will 
choose  an  Agent  of  their  own  ;  and  then,  that  Dr.  Frank 
lin  should    be    that    Agent.     My   Lords,  the    party  by 
whom  the  Assembly  is  now  directed,  did  not  want  a  man 
who  should  think  himself  bound  in  duty  to  consult  for 
the  peace  and  harmony  of  the  whole  government;  they 
had  their  own  private  separate   views,  and   they  wanted 
an  Agent  of  their   own,  who  should   be  a  willing  instru 
ment  and  instructor  in  the  accomplishing  their  own  sepa 
rate  purposes.     Dr.  Franklin,  therefore,  your  Lordships 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAF.      95 

see,  not  only  moves  in  a  different  orbit  from  that  of  other 
Colony  Agents,  but  he  gravitates  also  to  a  different  centre. 
His  great  point  appears  to  be  to  serve  the  interest  of  his 
party  ;  and  privately  to  supply  the  leaders  of  it  with  the 
necessary  intelligence.  Wheresoever  and  howsoever  he 
can  lay  his  hands  on  them,  he  thinks  it  his  duty  to  fur 
nish  materials  for  dissensions  ;  to  set  at  variance  the  dif 
ferent  branches  of  the  Legislature  ;  and  to  irritate  and 
incense  the  minds  of  the  King's  subjects  against  the 
King's  Governor. 

But,  says  the  Doctor,  the  tendency  of  these  letters  was  to 
incense  the  mother  country  against  her  colonies. 

There  is  a  certain  steadiness  which  is  singularly  re 
markable  in  this  case.  These  men  are  perpetually  offer 
ing  every  kind  of  insult  to  the  English  nation.  Setting 
the  King's  authority  at  defiance;  treating  the  parliament 
as  usurpers  of  an  authority  not  belonging  to  them,  and 
flatly  denying  the  Supreme  Jurisdiction  of  the  British 
empire  ;  and  have  been  publishing  their  votes  and  reso 
lutions  for  this  purpose;  and  yet  now  pretend  a  great 
concern  about  these  letters,  as  having  a  tendency  to  in 
cense  the  parent  state  against  the  colony.  Not  content 
with  bidding  defiance  to  our  authority,  they  now  offer 
insult  to  our  understanding  ;  and  at  the  very  time  while 
they  are  flying  in  the  King's  face,  would  have  him  turn 
out  his  Governor,  because  he  has  in  the  mildest  terms  in 
timated  his  opinion,  that  they  do  not  pay  the  reverence 
they  used  to  do,  to  the  British  authority. 

My  Lords,  we  are  perpetually  told  of  men's  incensing 
the  mother  country  against  the  colonies,  of  which  I  have 
never  known  a  single  instance.  But  we  hear  nothing  of 
the  vast  variety  of  arts  which  have  been  made  use  of  to 


90      PROCEEDINGS    ON    THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

incense  the  colonies  against  the  mother  country.  And 
in  all  these  arts  no  one  I  fear  has  been  a  more  successful 
proficient,  than  the  very  man,  who  now  stands  forth  as 
Mr.  Ilutchinson's  accuser.  My  Lords,  as  he  has  been 
pleased  in  his  own  letter  to  avow  this  accusation,  1  shall 
now  return  the  charge,  and  show  to  your  Lordships  who 
it  is  that  is  the  true  incendiary,  and  who  is  the  great 
abettor  of  that  faction  at  Boston,  which,  in  form  of  a 
Committee  of  Correspondence,  have  been  inflaming  the 
whole  province  against  his  Majesty's  government. 

My  Lords,  the  language  of  Dr.  Franklin's  peculiar 
correspondents  is  very  well  known.  For  years  past  they 
have  been  boasting  of  the  countenance  which  he  receives 
in  England,  and  the  encouragement  which  he  sends  over 
to  them  at  Boston.  One  of  their  last  boasted  advices 
was:  Go  on,  abstain  from  violence,  but  go  on;  for  you 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  government  here. 

My  Lords,  from  the  excess  of  their  zeal,  these  men 
are  apt  sometimes  to  let  out  a  little  too  much.  In  the 
Boston  Gazette  of  the  20th  of  September  last  is  a  letter, 
understood  at  Boston  to  have  been  written  by  Mr.  Adams, 
one  of  Dr.  Franklin's  six  constituents,*  which  ends  with 
the  following  passage  :— "  The  late  Agent,  Mr.  De  Bert, 
in  one  of  his  letters  wrote,  that  Lord  Hillsborough  pro 
fessed  a  great  regard  for  the  interest  of  America ;  and  he 
thought  the  only  thing  that  could  be  done  to  serve  us, 
was  to  keep  the  matter  of  ric/ht  out  of  sight.  The  professed 
design  of  that  minister  it  seems  was  to  serve  us.  But 
America  has  not  yet  thought  it  wise  to  agree  to  his  Lord- 

*  This  gentleman  was  the  manager  of  the  discovery  of  Mr.  Hutchinson's 
letters  in  the  Assembly  ;  as  Mr.  Bowdoin,  another  of  the  six,  was  in  the 
Council. 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      07 

ship's  political  plan,  to  wink  their  liberties  out  of  sight, 
for    the    sake    of    a    temporary    accommodation.      Dr. 
Franklin,  who  is  perhaps  as  penetrating  a  genius  as  his 
Lordship,  extended  his  views  a  little* farther.     '  I  hope,' 
says  he,  in  a  letter  dated    in   1771,  '  the  colon}'  Assem 
blies  will  show  by  repeated  resolves,  that  they  Imoiv  their 
rights,  and  do  not  lose  sight  of  them.     Our  growing  import 
ance  will  ere  long  compel  an  acknowledgment  of  them, 
and  establish  and   secure  th^rn  to  our  posterity!     And   he 
adds,  kl  purpose  to  draw  up  a  memorial  stating  our  rights 
and  grievances,  and   in   the   name   and  behalf  of  the   pro 
vince,  protesting  particularly  against  the  late  innovations. 
Whether  speedy  redress  is  or  is  not  the  consequence,  I 
imagine  it  may  be  of  good  use  to  keep  alive  our  claims,  and 
show  that  we  have  not  given  up   the   contested   points.' 
It  seems   to  have  been   the  judgment  of  this  great  man, 
that  a  state  of  rights  should  accompany   a   complaint  of 
grievances;  and  that  decent  and  manly  protests  against 
particular  innovations,  have  the  surest  tendency  to  an  ef- 
effectual,  if  not  a  speedy  removal  of  them."  * 

Your  Lordships  will  be  pleased  to  observe  the  time  of 
Dr.  Franklin's  announcing  his  intention  of  drawing  up 
for  them  such  a  memorial,  was  in  1771.  At  the  proper 
season  in  the  next  year,  there  was  produced  a  great  work, 
under  these  very  heads  of  a  State  of  Rights,  and  a  State 
of  Grievances,  and  Protests  against  the  new  Innovations: 
but  not  from  the  press  in  London  ;  that  would  not  have 
answered  the  purpose.  It  was  to  be  a  memorial  in  the 
name  and  behalf  of  the  province  ;  and  therefore  was  first 
to  be  sent  thither,  and  receive  the  stamp  of  their  author 
ities.  A  town  meeting  therefore  was  called,  and  a  Com- 

*  This  Gazette  was  misplaced  during  the  speech. 
13 


98    PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

mittee  of  Correspondence  chosen,  to  draw  up  a  state  of 
their  rights  and  grievances,  and  from  the  form  of  the 
resolution  it  is  pretty  manifest,  that  the  leaders  knew 
already  what  the  work  was  to  be.  After  an  adjournment 
the  Committee  met,  and  produced  this  great  twelve-penny 
book,  under  the  very  heads  of  a  state  of  their  rights,  and 
containing  a  list  of  their  grievances,  with  remonstrances 
sufficiently  strong  against  what  they  call  innovations. 
The  work  was  received  with  the  utmost  applause,  and  in 
stantly  converted  into  votes  and  resolutions  of  the  town 
of  Boston.  And  doubtless  it  well  deserved  it.  It  is  a 
set  of  ready  drawn  heads  of  a  declaration  for  any  one 
colony  in  America,  or  any  one  distant  county  in  the 
kingdom,  which  shall  choose  to  revolt  from  the  British 
empire,  and  say  that  they  will  not  be  governed  by  the 
King  and  Parliament  at  Westminster.  They  therefore 
voted  that  this  report  of  their  Committee  of  Correspon 
dence  should  be  printed  in  a  pamphlet,  and  that  six  hun 
dred  copies  of  them  should  be  disposed  of  to  the  select 
men  of  the  towns  of  the  province,  with  an  inflammatory 
letter,  sounding  an  alarm  of  a  plan  of  despotism,  with  which 
the  Administration  (and  the  Parliament)  intended  to  enslave 
them ;  and  threatened  them  with  certain  and  inevitable  de 
struction  ;  and  desiring  that  they  would  call  town-meet 
ings,  and  send  their  votes  and  resolutions  upon  this  book. 
In  sixty  or  seventy  villages  or  townships  such  meetings 
had  been  held,  and  all  express  the  highest  approbation 
of  this  excellent  performance.  And  well  they  might; 
for  it  told  them  a  hundred  rights,  of  which  they  never 
had  heard  before,  and  a  hundred  grievances  which  they 
never  before  had  felt.  Your  Lordships  see  the  votes  and 
instructions  of  these  several  townships,  in  the  Boston 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      99 

gazettes  here  before  me.  They  are  full  of  the  most  ex 
travagant  absurdities.  Such  as  the  enthusiastic  rants  of 
the  wildest  of  my  countrymen  in  the  days  of  Charles  II. 
cannot  equal,  ft  is  impossible  to  read  them 'to  your 
Lordships.  Those  of  Pembroke  and  of  Marblehead  are 
particularly  curious  :  but  I  shall  take  those  of  the  town 
of  Petersham. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
usurping  and  exercising  a  legislative  authority  over,  and 
extorting  an  unrighteous  revenue  from,  these  colonies,  is 
against  all  divine  and  human  laws.  The  late  appointment 
of  salaries  to  be  paid  to  our  Superior  Court  Judges,  whose 
creation,  pay,  and  commission,  depend  on  mere  will  and 
pleasure,  complete  a  system  of  bondage  equal  to  any  ever 
before  fabricated  by  the  combined  efforts  of  the  ingenuity, 
malice,  fraud,  and  wickedness  of  man. 

"  Therefore,  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  first  and  highest 
social  duty  of  this  people,  to  consider  of,  and  seek  ways 
and  means  for  a.  speedy  redress  of  these  mighty  griev 
ances  and  intolerable  wrongs ;  and  that  for  the  obtain- 
ment  of  this  end,  this  people  are  warranted,  by  the  laws 
of  God  and  nature,  in  the  use  of  every  rightful  art,  and 
energy  of  policy,  stratagem,  and  force. 

"  Therefore,  it  is  our  earnest  desire,  and  we  here  di 
rect  you,  to  use  your  utmost  influence  (as  one  of  the 
legislative  body)  to  convince  the  nation  of  Great  Britain 
that  the  measures  that  they  have  meted  out  to  us,  will 
have  a  direct  tendency  to  destroy  both  them  and  us ;  and 
petition  the  King  and  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  in  the 
most  pathetic  and  striking  manner,  to  relieve  us  from  our 
aggravated  grievances  ;  but  if  all  this  should  fail,  we  re 
commend  it  to  your  consideration,  and  direct  you  to  move 


100      PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE   ADDRESS    OF   MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

it  to  the  consideration  of  the  honorable  Court,  whether 
it  would  not  be  best  to  call  in  the  aid  of  some  Protestant 
power  or  powers,  requesting  that  they  would  use  their  kind 
and  Christian  influence  with  our  mother  country,  that  so 
we  may  be  relieved,  and  that  brotherly  love  and  harmony 
may  again  take  place." 

These  are  the  lessons  taught  in  Dr.  Franklin's  school 
of  Politics.  My  Lords,  I  do  not  say  that  Dr.  Franklin 
is  the  original  author  of  this  book.  But  your  Lordships 
will  give  me  leave  to  observe,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  is 
not  very  likely  that  any  of  the  Doctor's  scholars  at  Bos 
ton,  should  attempt  to  draw  up  such  a  state  of  rights  and 
grievances,  when  the  great  man,  their  master,  had  given 
them  notice  that  he  should  himself  set  about  such  a  work; 
and,  in  the  next  place,  that  if  the  Doctor  should  not 
choose  now  to  filiate  the  child,  yet  the  time  has  been 
when  he  was  not  ashamed  of  it ;  for,  after  it  had  had  its 
operation  in  America,  the  Doctor  reprinted  it  here,  with 
a  preface  of  his  own,  and  presented  it  to  his  friends. 

My  Lords,  I  have  said  that  sixty  or  seventy  of  the 
townships  had  already  voted  their  approbation  of  the  book. 
The  evil  was  catching  from  town  to  town  (and  if  the 
greater  part  could  have  been  engaged,  they  would  have 
forced  the  rest)  when  the  Governor  thought  it  his  duty 
to  interpose.  He  therefore  called  upon  the  Assembly  to 
disown  these  undutiful  proceedings.  Had  he  only  men 
tioned  the  disloyalty  and  evil  tendency  of  them,  they 
would  probably  have  passed  a  few  resolutions,  and  have 
suffered  the  evil  to  go  on.  He  was  well  aware,  that  the 
Assembly  could  easily  vote  themselves  as  many  privileges 
as  they  pleased,  but  that  it  was  not  so  easy  to  prove  their 
rio-ht  to  them.  He,  therefore,  disarmed  them  of  their 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      101 

strength  in  voting,  and  put  them  under  the  necessity  of 
proving ;  and  there  he  knew  they  would  fail.  By  open 
ing  the  session  with  that  very  masterly  speech  in  defence 
of  the  British-American  constitution,  he,  for  a  time, 
stunned  the  faction,  and  gave  a  check  to  the  progress 
of  their  town-meetings.  And  though  the  same  men  were 
in  the  Assembly  created  a  Committee  of  Correspondence, 
to  write  to  the  Assemblies  of  the  other  provinces,  yet  the 
spirit  of  the  design  languished,  and  but  little  more  was 
then  done  in  it. 

This,  my  Lords,  is  the  great  and  principal  ground  of 
their  quarrel  with  Mr.  Hutchinson.  They  want  a  Go 
vernor  who  shall  know  less  than  themselves,  whereas  he 
makes  them  feel  that  he  knows  more.  He  stopped  the 
train  which  Dr.  Franklin's  constituents  had  laid,  to  blow 
up  the  province  into  a  flame,  which  from  thence  was  to 
have  been  spread  over  the  other  provinces.  This  was  the 
real  provocation  :  and  for  this  they  have  been  seeking  for 
some  ground  of  accusation  against  him. 

After  sifting  his  whole  conduct  for  the  four  years  in 
which  he  has  been  Governor,  they  are  riot  able  to  point 
out  a  single  action  to  find  fault  with.  Their  only  re 
course  is  to  their  own  surmises  of  what  were  the  senti 
ments  of  his  heart  five  or  six  years  ago.  He  was,  they 
say,  among  the  instruments  in  introducing  a  fleet  and  arm?/ 
into  the  province.  Have  they  attempted  any  proof  of  this  ? 
No.  But  they  fancy  it  from  some  letters  of  his,  which 
do  not  say  a  single  word  of  that  sort.  Is  it  possible  to 
conceive  of  a  more  groundless  accusation,  or  not  to  see 
their  intent  in  it? 

My  Lords,  they  mean  nothing  more  by  this  Address, 
than  to  fix  a  stigma  on  the  Governor  by  the  accusation. 


102    PROCEEDINGS    ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

Their  charge,  founded  upon  a  pretence  of  knowing  six 
years  ago  what  were  Mr.  Hutchinson's  thoughts,  is  not 
really  designed  for  his  Majesty  in  Council.  They  know 
that  your  Lordships  will  not  take  an  accusation  for  a 
proof;  nor  condemn  without  evidence.  They  never  de 
sired  to  be  brought  to  a  hearing;  and  therefore  the  first 
instant  when  your  Lordships  call  for  their  proofs,  they  fly 
off,  and  say  they  do  not  mean  this  as  a.  charge,  or  a  trial 
before  your  Lordships  ;  and  they  say  truly  :  they  meant 
to  bring  it  before  the  multitude,  and  to  address  the  popu 
lar  prejudices.  The  mob,  they  know,  need  only  hear 
their  Governors  accused,  and  they  will  be  sure  to  con 
demn.  My  Lords,  they  boast  at  Boston,  that  they  have 
found  this  method  succeed  against  their  last  Governor, 
and  they  hope  to  make  it  do  against  this  ;  and  by  a  second 
precedent  to  establish  their  power,  and  make  all  future 
Governors  bow7  to  their  authority.  They  wish  to  erect 
themselves  into  a  tyranny  greater  than  the  Roman  :  to 
be  able,  sitting  in  their  own  secret  cabal,  to  dictate  for 
the  Assembly,  and  send  away  their  vcrlosa  d  c/randis 
epistola,  and  get  even  a  virtuous  Governor  dragged  from 
his  seat,  and  made  the  sport  of  a  Boston  mob. 

Having  turned  out  all  other  Governors,  they  may  at 
length  hope  to  get  one  of  their  own.  The  letters  from 
Boston,  for  two  years  past,  have  intimated  that  Dr. 
Franklin  was  aiming  at  Mr.  Hutchinson's  government. 
It  was  not  easy  before  this  to  give  credit  to  such  sur 
mises  :  but  nothing  surely  but  a  too  eager  attention  to 
an  ambition  of  this  sort,  could  have  betrayed  a  wise  man 
into  such  a  conduct  as  we  have  now  seen.  Whether 
these  surmises  are  true  or  not,  your  Lordships  are  much 
the  best  judges.  If  they  should  be  true,  I  hope  that 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      103 

Mr.  Hutchinson  will  not  meet  with  the  less  countenance 
from  your  Lordships,  for  his  rival's  being  his  .accuser. 
Nor  will  your  Lordships,  I  trust,  from  what  you  have 
heard,  advise  the  having  Mr.  Hutchinson  displaced,  in 
order  to  make  room  for  Dr.  Franklin  as  a  successor. 

With  regard  to  his  constituents,  the  factious  leaders  at 
Boston,  who  make  this  complaint  against  their  Governor ; 
if  the  relating  of  their  evil  doings  be  criminal,  and  tend 
ing  to  alienate  his  Majesty's  affections,  must  not  the  doing 
of  them  be  much  more  so  ?  Yet  now  they  ask  that  his 
Majesty  will  gratify  and  reward  them  for  doing  these 
things;  and  that  he  will  punish  their  Governor  for  re 
lating  them,  because  they  are  so  very  bad  that  it  cannot 
but  oifend  his  Majesty  to  hear  of  them. 

My  Lords,  if  the  account  given  in  these  letters,  of 
their  proceedings  five  years  ago,  tended  to  alienate  his 
Majesty's  affections,  has  their  conduct  ever  since  been  in 
any  respect  more  conciliating?  Was  it  to  confute  or  pre 
vent  the  pernicious  effect  of  these  letters,  that  the  good 
men  of  Boston  have  lately  held  their  meetings,  appointed 
their  Committees,  and  with  their  usual  moderation  de 
stroyed  the  cargo  of  three  British  ships  ?  If  an  English 
Consul,  in  any  part  of  France  or  Spain,  or  rather  Algiers 
or  Tripoli,  (for  European  Powers  respect  the  law  of  na 
tions,)  had  not  called  this  an  outrage  on  his  country,  he 
would  have  deserved  punishment.  But  if  a  Governor  at 
Boston  should  presume  to  whisper  to  a  friend,  that  he 
thinks  it  somewhat  more  than  a  moderate  exertion  of 
English  liberty,  to  destroy  the  ships  of  England,  to  at 
tack  her  officers,  to  plunder  their  goods,  to  pull  down 
their  houses,  or  even  to  burn  the  King's  ships  of  war,  he 
ought  to  be  removed  ;  because  such  a  conduct  in  him  has 


104      PROCEEDINGS    ON    THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

a  natural  and  efficacious  tendency  to  interrupt  the  harmony 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  colony,  which  these  good  sub 
jects  jire  striving  by  such  means  to  establish. 

On  the  part  of  Mr.  Hutchinson  ami  Mr.  Oliver,  I  am 
instructed  to  assure  your  Lordships,  that  they  feel  no 
spark  of  resentment,  even  at  the  individuals  who  have 
done  them  this  injustice.  Their  private  letters  breathe 
nothing  but  moderation.  They  are  convinced  that  the 
people,  though  misled,  are  innocent.  J.f  the  conduct  of  a 
few  should  provoke  a  just  indignation,  they  would  he  the 
most  forward,  and,  J  trust,  the  most  efficacious  solicitors 
to  avert  its  effects,  and  to  excuse  the  men.  They  love 
the  soil,  the  constitution,  the  people  of  New  England  ; 
they  look  with  reverence  to  this  country,  and  with  affec 
tion  to  that.  For  the  sake  of  the  people  they  wish  some 
faults  corrected,  anarchy  abolished,  and  government  re 
established.  But  these  salutary  ends  they  wish  to  pro 
mote  by  the  gentlest  means  ;  and  the  abridging  of  no 
liberties,  which  a  people  can  possibly  use  to  its  own  ad 
vantage.  A  restraint  from  self-destruction  is  the  only 
restraint  they  desire  to  be  imposed  upon  New  England. 

My  Lords,  I  have  said  that  the  letter  which  accompa 
nied  these  in  question,  was  anonymous,  and  that  it  was 
directed  to  be  shown  to  six  persons  only. 

I  am  prepared  to  enter  into  the  proof  of  this.  I  call 
upon  Dr.  Franklin,  for  my  witness.  And  I  am  ready  to 
examine  him. 

N.  B. — Dr.  Franklin  being  present,  remained  silent, 
but  declared  by  his  counsel  that  he  did  not  choose  to  be 
examined. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.      105 

The  following  letter  having  been  mentioned  in  Mr. 
Wedderburn's  Speech,  it  is  printed  for  the  reader's  satis 
faction,  and  to  complete  the  collection. 

Copy  of  a  Letter  returned  tvith   those  signed  Tho.  Ilutchin- 
son,  Andrew  Oliver,  &c. 

FROM  ENGLAND. 

Narraganset,  Dec.  22,  1767. 

SIR  : — I  am  now  withdrawn  to  my  little  country  villa, 
where,  though  I  am  more  retired  from  the  busy  world, 
yet  1  am  still  enveloped  with  uneasy  reflections  for  a 
turbulent,  degenerate,  ungrateful  continent,  and  the  oppo 
sition  I  have  met  with  in  my  indefatigable  endeavors  to 
secure  our  property  in  this  colony,  but  hitherto  without 
success.  The  times  are  so  corrupted,  and  the  conflict  of 
parties  so  predominant,  that  faction  is  blind,  or  shuts  her 
eyes  to  the  most  evident  truths  that  cross  her  designs, 
and  believes  in  any  absurdities  that  assists  to  accomplish 
her  purposes  under  the  prostitution  and  prostration  of  an 
infatuated  government.  Judge  then,  my  dear  sir,  in  what 
a  critical  situation  the  fortunes  of  we  poor  Europeans 
must  be  among  them. 

We  have  not  been  able  to  recover  our  property  for 
years  past,  how  great  soever  our  exigencies  may  have 
been,  unless  we  soothed  them  into  a  compliance.  We  are 
unwilling  to  enter  into  a  litis-contestation  with  them,  be 
cause  the  perversion  of  their  iniquitous  courts  of  justice 
are  so  great,  that  experience  has  convinced  us  we  had 
better  lose  half,  to  obtain  the  other  quietly,  than  pursue 
compulsory  measures.  We  are  also  afraid  to  apply  to  a 
British  parliament  for  relief,  as  none  can  be  effectually 


106      PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE   ADDRESS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

administered  without  a  change  of  government,  and  a 
better  administration  of  justice  introduced  ;  and  was  it 
known  here  that  we  made  such  application  home,  not  only 
our  fortunes  would  be  in  greater  jeopardy,  but  our  lives 
endangered  by  it  before  any  salutary  regulations  could 
take  place.  We  are  sensible  of  the  goodness  of  the  King 
and  Parliament,  but  how  far.  or  in  what  space  of  time 
our  grievance,  as  a  few  individuals,  might  weigh  against 
the  influence  of  a  charter  government,  we  are  at  a  loss  to 
determine. 

In  1761,  I  arrived  in  America,  which  circumstance  you 
probably  remember  well.  With  great  industry,  caution 
and  circumspection,  1  have  not  only  reduced  our  demands, 
and  regulated  our  connections  in  some  measure,  but  kept 
my  head  out  of  a  halter  which  you  had  the  honor  to  grace. 
(Pray,  Doctor,  how  did  it  feel  ?  The  subject  is  stale, 
but  I  must  be  a  little  funny  with  you  on  the  occasion.) 
Much  still  remains  to  be  done,  and  after  all  my  best  en 
deavors,  my  constituents,  from  a  moderate  calculation, 
cannot  lose  less  than  £50,000  sterling,  by  the  baneful 
constitution  of  this  colony,  and  corruption  of  their  courts 
of  judicature.  It  is  really  a  very  affecting  and  melancholy 
consideration. 

Under  a  deep  sense  of  the  infirmities  of  their  constitu 
tion  ;  the  innovations  which  they  have  gradually  inter 
woven  among  themselves  :  and  stimulated  by  every  act 
of  forbearance,  lenity,  and  patience,  we  have  indulged 
our  correspondents  until  deluges  of  bankruptcies  have 
ensued,  insolvent  acts  liberated  them  from  our  just  de 
mands,  and  finally,  had  our  indisputable  accounts  refused 
admission  for  our  proportion  of  the  small  remains,  until 
colony  creditors  were  first  paid,  and  the  whole  absorbed. 


PROCEEDINGS    ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      107 

We  have  had  vessels  made  over  to  us  for  the  satisfaction 
of  debts,  and  after  bills  of  sales  were  executed,  carried 
off  in  open  violence  and  force  by  Capt.  Snip-snap  of  Mr. 
Nobody's  appointment,  and  when  we  sued  him  for  da  mages, 
recovered  a  louse.      We  have  in  oar  turn  been  sued  in  our 
absence,  and  condemned  ex parte  in  large  sums  for  imagi 
nary  damages,  for  which  we  can  neither  obtain  a  trial,  nor 
redress.     They  refuse  us  an  appeal  to  the  king  in  council ; 
the  money  must  be  paid  when    their  executions  become 
returnable  ;  and    were    we   to  carry  it  home  by  way  of 
complaint,  it  would  cost  us  two  or  three  hundred  pounds 
sterling  to    prosecute,  and   after  all,  when   his   Majesty's 
decrees  come  over  in  our  favor,  and  refunding  the  money 
can  no  longer  be  evaded,  I  expect  their  effects  will  be 
secreted,  their  bodies  released  by  the  insolvent  act,  and 
our  money,  both   principal,  interest,  and  expenses,  irre 
coverably  gone.     Is  not  our  case  grievous  ?     We  have 
in  actions,  founded  upon  notes  of  hand,  been  cast  in  their 
courts  of  judicature.     We  have  appealed  to  his  Majesty 
in  council  for  redress,  got  their  verdicts  reversed,  and  ob 
tained  the  king's  decrees  for  our  money,  but  that  is  all ; 
for  although  I  have  had  them  by  me  above  twelve  months, 
and  employed  two  eminent  lawyers  to  enforce  them  into 
execution,  conformable  to  the  colony  law,  yet  we  have 
not  been  able  to  recover  a  single  shilling,  though  we  have 
danced  after  their  courts  and  assemblies  above  thirty  days, 
in  vain  to  accomplish  that  purpose  only.     Consider,  my 
dear  Sir,  what  expense,  vexation,  and  loss  of  time  this 
must  be  to  us,  and  whether  we  have  not  just  cause  of 
complaint. 

We  have  also  in  vain  waited  with  great  impatience  for 
years  past,  in  hopes  his  Majesty  would  have  nominated 


108    PROCEEDINGS    ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

his  judges,  and  other  executive  officers  in  every  colony 
in  America,  which  would  in  a  great  measure  have  removed 
the  cause  of  our  complaint.  Nothing  can  be  more  neces 
sary  than  a  speedy  regulation  in  this,  and  constituting  it 
a  regal  government ;  and  nothing  is  of  such  important 
use  to  a  nation,  as  that  men  who  excel  in  wisdom  and 
virtue  should  be  encouraged  to  undertake  the  business  of 
government.  But  the  iniquitous  course  of  their  courts 
of  justice  in  this  colony  deters  such  men  from  serving 
the  public,  or  if  they  do  so,  unless  patronized  at  home, 
their  wisdom  and  virtue  are  turned  against  them  with 
such  malignity,  that  it  is  more  safe  to  be  infamous  than 
renowned.  The  principal  exception  I  have  met  with  here, 
is  James  Helmes,  Esq.,  who  was  chosen  chief  justice  by 
the  General  Assembly  at  last  election.  He  accepted  his 
appointment,  distinguishes  himself  by  capacity  and  ap 
plication,  and  seems  neither  afraid  nor  ashamed  to  ad 
minister  impartial  justice  to  all,  even  to  the  native  and 
residing  creditors  of  the  mother  country.  I  have  known 
him  grant  them  temporary  relief  by  writs  of  error,  &c., 
when  both  he  and  they  were  overruled  by  the  partiality 
of  the  court;  and  in  vain,  though  with  great  candor  and 
force,  plead  with  the  rest  of  the  bench,  that  for  the  honor 
of  the  colony,  and  their  own  reputation,  they  ought  never 
to  pay  less  regard  to  the  decrees  of  his  Majesty  in  coun 
cil,  because  the  properly  was  determined  in  Great  Britain, 
than  to  their  own.  I  have  also  heard  him  with  resolution 
and  firmness,  when  he  discovered  the  court  to  be  immode 
rately  partial,  order  his  name  to  be  enrolled,  as  dissenting 
from  the  verdict.  For  such  honesty  and  candor,  I  am 
persuaded  he  will  he  deposed  at  next  election,  unless  they 
should  be  still  in  hopes  of  making  a  convert  of  him. 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      109 

I  wish  it  was  in  rny  power  to  prevent  every  American 
from  suffering  for  the  cause  of  integrity  and  their  mother 
country  ;  he,  in  an  especial  manner,  should  not  only  be 
protected  and  supported,  but  appear  among  the  first  promo 
tions.  Is  there  no  gentleman  of  public  spirit  at  home, 
that  would  be  pleased. to  be  an  instrument  of  elevating  a 
man  of  his  principles  and  probity  ?  Or  is  it  become 
fashionable  for  vice  to  be  countenanced  with  impunity, 
and  every  trace  of  virtue  passed  over  unnoticed?  God 
forbid  ! 

The  colonies  have  originally  been  wrong  founded. 
They  ought  all  to  have  been  regal  governments,  and  every 
executive  officer  appointed  by  the  king.  Until  that  is 
effected,  and  they  are  properly  regulated,  they  will  never 
be  beneficial  to  themselves,  nor  good  subjects  to  Great 
Britain.  You  see  with  what  contempt  they  already  treat 
the  acts  of  parliament  for  regulating  their  trade,  and 
enter  into  the  most  public,  illegal,  and  affronting  combi 
nations  to  obtain  a  repeal,  by  again  imposing  upon  the 
British  merchants  and  manufacturers,  and  all  under  the 
cloak  of  retrenching  their  expenses  by  avoiding  every  unne 
cessary  superfluity.  Were  that  really  the  case,  I  am  sure 
I  would,  and  also  every  other  British  subject,  esteem 
them  for  it;  but  the  fact  is,  they  obtained  a  repeal  of  the 
stamp  act  by  mercantile  influence,  and  they  are  now  en 
deavoring  by  the  same  artifice  and  finesse  to  repeal  the 
acts  of  trade,  and  obtain  a  total  exemption  from  all  taxa 
tion.  Were  it  otherways,  and  they  sincerely  disposed  to 
stop  the  importation  of  every  unnecessary  superfluity, 
without  affronting  the  British  legislation  by  their  public, 
general,  and  illegal  combinations,  they  might  accomplish 
their  purposes  with  much  more  decency,  and  suppress  it 


110      PROCEEDINGS  ON  TEIE   ADDRESS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

more  effectually  by  the  acts  of  their  own  legislation,  im 
posing  such  duties  upon  their  importation  here,*  as  might 
either  occasion  a  total  prohibition,  or  confine  the  consump 
tion  of  them  to  particular  individuals  that  can  afford  to 
buy,  by  which  measures  they  would  also  raise  a  consider 
able  colony  Revenue,  and  ease  the  poor  inhabitants  in  the 
tax  they  now  pay.  But  the'  temper  of  the  country  is 
exceedingly  factious,  and  prone  to  sedition ;  they  are 
growing  more  imperious,  haughty,  nay  insolent  every  day, 
and  in  a  short  space,  unless  wholesome  regulations  take 
place,  the  spirit  they  have  enkindled,  and  the  conceptions 
of  government  they  have  imbibed,  will  be  more  grievous 
to  the  mother  country  than  ever  the  ostracism  was  to  the 
Athenians. 

A  bridle  at  present  may  accomplish  more  than  a  rod 
hereafter  ;  for  the  malignant  poison  of  the  times,  like  a 
general  pestilence,  spreads  beyond  conception  ;  and  if 
the  British  parliament  are  too  late  in  their  regulations, 
neglect  measures  seven  years,  which  are  essentially  ne 
cessary  now,  sbould  they  then  be  able  to  stifle  their  com 
motions,  it  will  only  be  a  temporary  extinction,  conse 
quently,  every  hour's  indulgence  will  answer  no  other 
purpose  than  to  enable  them  in  a  more  effectual  manner  to 
sow  seeds  of  dissension  to  be  rekindled  whenever  they 
are  in  a  capacity  to  oppose  the  mother  country  and  render 
themselves  independent  of  her. 

Have  they  not  already  in  the  most  public  manner  shown 
their  opposition  to  the  measures  of  parliament  in  the  affair 
of  the  late  stamp  act  ?  Do  not  they  now  with  equal 
violence  and  audacity,  in  both  public  papers  and  conversa- 

*  I  mean  foreign  growth  or  fabrications ;  but  if  on   British,  it  would  be 
more  pardonable  than  their  present  system. 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS    BAY.      Ill 

tion,  declare  the  parliamentary  regulations  in  their  nets  of 
trade  to  be  illegal  and  a  mere  nullity  ?  What  further 
proofs  do  we  wait  for,  of  either  their  good  or  bad  dis 
position  ?  Did  you  ever  hear  of  any  colonies,  in  their 
infant  state,  teach  the  science  of  tyranny,  reduced  into 
rides*  over  every  subject  that  discountenanced  their 
measures  in  opposition  to  the  mother  country,  in  a  more 
imperious  manner  than  they  have  done  these  four  years  past  ? 

Have  they  not  made  use  of  every  stroke  of  policy  ( in 
their  way  )  to  avail  themselves  of  the  dark  purposes  of 
their  independence,  and  suffered  no  restraint  of  conscience, 
or  fear,  not  even  the  guilt  of  threatening  to  excite  a 
civil  war,  and  revolt,  if  not  indulged  with  an  unlimited 
trade,  without  restraint;  and  British  protection,  without 
expence  ?  for  that  is  the  engine  of  it.  Is  this  their  true 
or  mistaken  portrait  ?  SAY.  If  it  is  their  true  one,  ought 
not  such  pernicious  maxims  of  policy — such  wicked 
discipline — such  ingratitude — such  dissimulation — such 
perfidy — such  violent,  ruthless  and  sanguinary  councils, 
where  a  Cleon  bears  rule,  and  an  Aristides  cannot  be  en 
dured,  to  be  crushed  in  embryo  ?  If  not,  the  alternative 
cannot  avoid  producing  such  a  government,  as  will  ere 
long  throw  the  whole  kingdom  into  the  utmost  confusion, 
endanger  the  life,  liberty,  and  property  of  every  good 
subject,  and  again  expose  them  to  the  merciless  assassi 
nation  of  a  rabble. 

I  am  sensible  that  in  all  political  disputes,  especially 
in  America,  a  man  may  see  some  things  to  blame  on  both 
sides,  and  so  much  to  fear,  which  every  faction  should 
conquer,  as  to  be  justified  in  not  intermeddling  with 
mther;  but  in  matters  of  such  vast  importance  as  the 

*  The  Committee  to  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  &c. 


112      PROCEEDINGS    ON    THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

present,  wherein  we  have  suffered  so  much — still  deeply 
interested,  and  by  which  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the 
nation  is  at  stake  ;  it  is  difficult  to  conceal  one's  emo 
tions  from  a  friend,  and  remain  a  tranquil  spectator  on  a 
theatre  of  such  chicanery  and  collusion  as  will  inevitably 
(if  not  checked,  and  may  sooner  happen  than  is  imagined 
by  many)  chill  the  blood  of  many  a  true  Briton. 

It  may  be  true  policy,  in  some  cases,  to  tame  the 
fiercest  spirit  of  popular  liberty,  not  by  blows,  or  by 
chains,  but  by  soothing  her  into  a  willing  obedience,  and 
making  her  kiss  the  veiy  hand  that  restrains  her  ;  but 
such  policy  would  be  a  very  unsuitable  potion  to  cure  the 
malady  of  the  present  times.  They  are  too  much  cor 
rupted,  and  already  so  intoxicated  with  their  own 
importance  as  to  make  a  wrong  use  of  lenient  measures. 
They  construe  them  into  their  own  natural  rights,  and  a 
timidity  in  the  mother  country.  They  consider  them 
selves  a  little  bigger  than  the  frog  in  the  fable,  and  that 
Great  Britain  can  never  long  grapple  with  their  huge 
territory  of  1500  miles  frontier,  already  populous,  and 
increasing  with  such  celerity,  as  to  double  their  numbers 
once  in  twenty-five  years.  This  is  not  perfectly  consonant 
with  my  idea  of  the  matter,  though  such  calculation  has 
been  made  ;  and  admitting  it  to  be  erroneous,  yet  as 
they  believe  it,  it  has  the  same  evil  effect,  and  possesses 
the  imaginations  of  the  people  with  such  a  degree  of  in 
sanity  and  enthusiasm,  as  there  is  hardly  anything  more 
common  than  to  hear  them  boast  of  particular  colonies 
that  can  raise  on  a  short  notice  an  hundred  thousand  fight 
ing  men  to  oppose  the  force  of  Great  Britain;  certain  it 
is,  that  they  increase  in  numbers  by  emigration,  &c.,  very 
fast,  and  are  become  such  a  body  of  people,  with  such 


PROCEEDINGS    ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.       113 

extensive  territor}^  as  require  every  bud  of  their  genius 
and  disposition  to  be  narrowly  watched  and  pruned  with 
great  judgment,  otherwise  they  may  become,  not  only 
troublesome  to  Great  Britain,  but  enemies  to  themselves. 
Now  is  the  critical  season.  They  are  still  like  some 
raw,  giddy  youth  just  emerging  into  the  world,  in  a 
corrupt,  degenerate  age.  A  parent,  or  a  guardian,  is 
therefore  still  necessary;  and  if  well  managed,  they 
will  soon  arrive  at  such  maturity  as  to  become  obedient, 
dutiful  children  ;  but  if  neglected  long,  the  rod  of  chas 
tisement  will  be  so  much  longer  necessary  as  to  become 
too  burthensome,  and  must  be  dropped  with  the  colonies. 
They  almost  consider  themselves  as  a  separate  people 
from  Great  Britain  already. 

Last  month,  while  1  was  attending  the  General  Assem 
bly,  the  Governor  sent  a  written  message  to  the  lower 
house,  importing  his  intention  of  a  resignation  at  the 
next  election,  assigning  for  reasons,  the  fumes  in  the 
colony  and  party  spirit  were  so  high,  and  that  bribery 
and  corruption  were  so  predominant,  that  neither  life, 
liberty,  nor  property,  were  safe,  &c.,  &c.,  &c.  Now,  Sir, 
whether  the  Governor's  intentions,  as  exhibited  in  this 
open,  public  declaration  was  real  or  feigned,  to  answer  poli 
tical  purposes,  it  still  evinces  their  decrepid  state,  the  pros 
titution  of  government,  and  melancholy  situation  of  every 
good  subject :  For  it  cannot  be  supposed,  by  any  candid 
inquisitor,  that  a  declaration  of  that  nature  and  form 
would,  if  not  true,  have  been  delivered  by  a  Governor 
to  a  whole  legislative  body  in  order  to  emancipate  him 
self.  If  this  truth  is  granted,  and  this  allowed  to  be 
their  unhappy  situation,  how  much  is  it  the  duty  of  every 

good  ma.n,  and  what  language  is  sufficient  to  paint,  in  .in 
15 


114    PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAV. 

effectual  manner,  this  internal  imbecility  of  an  English 
colony  (in  many  other  respects  favorably  situated  for 
trade  and  commerce,  one  of  the  safest,  largest,  and  most 
commodious  harbors  in  all  America,  or  perhaps  in  all 
Europe,  accessible  at  all  seasons,  situated  in  a  fine  cli 
mate,  and  abounding  with  fertile  soil)  to  the  maternal 
bowels  of  compassion  in  order  that  she  may  seasonably, 
if  she  thinks  it  necessary  to  interpose,  regulate,  and  wipe 
away  their  pernicious  Charter,  rendered  obnoxious  by  the 
abuse  of  it ! 

1  am  afraid  I  have  tired  your  patience  with  a  subject 
that  must  give  pain  to  every  impartial  friend  to  Great 
Britain  and  her  colonies.  When  I  took  up  my  pen,  I 
onty  intended  to  have  communicated  the  outlines  of  such 
of  my  perplexities  (without  dipping  so  far  into  political 
matter)  as  I  thought  would  atone  for,  or  excuse  my  long 
silence,  and  excite  your  compassion  and  advice. 

Our  friend  Hobinson  is  gone  to  Boston  to  join  the  com 
missioners.  My  compliments  to  Colonel  Stuart.  May  I 
ask  the  favor  of  you  both  to  come  and  eat  a  Christmas 
dinner  with  me  at  Batch elor's  hall,  and  celebrate  the  fes 
tivity  of  the  season  with  me  in  Narraganset  woods.  A 
covy  of  partridges,  or  bevy  of  quails,  will  be  entertain 
ment  for  the  Colonel  and  me,  while  the  pike  and  perch 
ponds  amuse  you.  Should  business  or  pre-engagement 
prevent  me  that  pleasure,  permit  me  to  ask  the  favor  of 
your  earliest  intelligence  of  the  proceedings  of  parlia 
ment,  and  of  your  opinion  whether  our  case  is  not  so 
grievous  as  to  excite  their  compassion  and  interposition, 
were  it  known  ?  This  narration,  together  with  your  own 
knowledge  of  many  of  the  facts,  and  the  disposition  of 
the  colonies  in  general,  will  refresh  your  memory  and 


PROCEEDINGS  ON   THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      115 

enable  you  to  form  a  judgment.  Relief  from  home  seems 
so  tedious,  especially  to  us  who  have  suffered  so  much, 
like  to  suffer  more,  and  unacquainted  with  their  reasons 
of  delay,  that  I  am  quite  impatient. 

Above  twelve  months  ago,  I  received  from  three  gentle 
men  in  London  (in  trust  for  several  others)  exemplified 
accounts  for  a  balance  of  above  twenty-six  thousand 
pounds  sterling,  mostly  due  from  this  colony,  not  £50 
of  which  shall  I  ever  be  able  to  recover  without  compul 
sive  measures,  and  what  is  still  worse,  my  lawyer  advises 
me  from  all  thoughts  of  prosecution  unless  a  change  of 
government  ensues.  I  am  therefore  obliged  to  send  them 
his  opinion  (in  justification  of  my  own  conduct)  in  lieu 
of  money  ten  years  due.  Poor  satisfaction!  Our  con 
solation  must  be  in  a  British  parliament.  Every  other 
avenue  is  rendered  impregnable  by  their  subtlety  and 
degeneracy,  arid  we  can  no  longer  depend  upon  a  people 
who  are  so  unthankful  for  our  indulgences,  and  the  lenity 
of  their  mother  country.  I  wish  you  the  compliments 
of  the  approaching  season,  and  a  succession  of  many 
happy  new  years. 

1  am,  Sir,  with  much  regard, 

Your  most  humble  Servant, 

G.  ROME. 


116      PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDRESS   OF   MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

At  the  Court  at  ST.  JAMES'S,  the  1th  day  of  February,  1774. 

PRESENT. 

The  KING'S  most  Excellent  Majesty, 

Lord  Chancellor,  Viscount  Falmouth, 

Lord  President,  Viscount  Harrington, 

Duke  of  Queensberry,  Lord  Le  Despenser, 

Duke  of  Ancaster,  Lord  Cathcart, 

Lord  Chamberlain,  Lord  Hyde, 

Earl  of  Suffolk,  James  Stuart  Mackenzie,  Esq., 

Earl  of  Denbigh,  Hans  Stanley,  Esq., 

Earl  of  Sandwich,  George  Onslow,  Esq., 

Earl  of  Rochford,  Sir  Jeffery  Ainherst, 

Earl  of  Dartmouth,  Charles  Jenkinson,  Esq., 

Earl  of  Bristol,  Sir  John  Goodricke. 

Earl  of  Pom  fret, 

Whereas  there  was  this  clay  read  at  the  Board,  a  Re 
port  from  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  Council  for  Plantation  Affairs,  dated  the  29th 
of  last  month,  in  the  words  following,  viz  : 

"  At  the  Council  Chamber,  Whitehall,  the  29th  of  Jan 
uary,  1774. 

"  By  the  Right  Honorable  the  Lords  of  the  Committee 
of  Council  for  Plantation  Affairs. 

PRESENT. 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Earl  of  Rochford, 

Lord  President,  Earl  of  Marchmont, 

Duke  of  Queensberry,  Earl  of  Dartmouth, 

Earl  of  Suffolk,  Earl  of  Buckinghamshire, 

Earl  of  Denbigh,  Earl  of  Hardwicke, 

Earl  of  Sandwich,  Earl  of  Hillsborough, 

Lord  Geo.  Sackville  Jermain,  Hans  Stanley,  Esq., 


PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF    MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.      117 

Viscount  Townshend,  Richard  Rigby,  Esq., 

Viscount  Falmouth,  Sir  Eardly  Wilmot, 

Lord  North,  Thomas  Townsend,  jr.,  Esq., 

Bishop  of  London,  George  Onslow,  Esq., 

Lord  Le  Despencer,  George  Rice,  Esq., 

Lord  Cathcart,  Lord  Chief  Justice  De  Grey, 

Lord  Hyde,  Sir  Lawrence  Dundass, 
James  Stuart  Mackenzie,  Esq.,  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst, 

General  Conway,  Sir  Thomas  Parker, 

Wellbore  Ellis,  Esq.,  Charles  Jenkinson,  Esq. 
Sir  Gilbert  Elliott, 

"  Your  Majesty  having  been  pleased  by  your  Order  in 
Council  of  the  10th  of  last  month,  to  refer  unto  this  Com 
mittee  an  Address  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  Province  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  complaining  of  the 
conduct  of  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esq.,  Governor,  and  An 
drew  Oliver,  Esq.,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  that  Province  ; 
and  humbly  praying  that  your  Majesty  would  be  pleased 
to  remove  the  said  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Esq.,  and  Andrew 
Oliver,  Esq.,  from  their  posts  in  that  government :  the 
Lords  of  the  Committee  did,  in  obedience  to  your  Ma 
jesty's  said  order  of  reference,  proceed  on  the  llth  of 
this  instant,  to  take  the  petition  of  the  said  House  of 
Representatives  into  consideration,  and  were  attended  by 
Benjamin  Franklin,  Esquire,  sty  ling  himself  agent  for  the 
said  House  of  Representatives,  (and  from  whom  the  said 
petition  had  been  transmitted  to  the  Right  Honorable  the 
Earl  of  Dartmouth,  one  of  your  Majesty's  principal  Secre 
taries  of  State,)  and  likewise  by  Israel  Mauduit,  Esquire, 
from  whom  application  had  been  made  to  this  Committee, 
humbly  praying  on  behalf  of  your  Majesty's  said  Governor 
and  Lieutenant  Governor,  that  he  might  be  heard  by 
Council  in  relation  to  the  Address  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  of  the  said  province  ;  and  the  said  Benjamin 


118      PROCEEDINGS    ON    THE    ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

Franklin,  Esq.,  having  thereupon  prayed,  that  he  might 
in  that  case  be  heard  also  by  his  Council  at  a  future  day : 
the  Lords  of  the  Committee  did,  in  compliance  with  the 
petition  of  the  said  Israel  Mauduit,  Esq.,  and  at  the  in 
stance  of  the  said  Benjamin  Franklin,  Esq.,  think  proper 
to  appoint  a  future  day  to  resume  the  consideration  of 
the  said  petition  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  to  allow  Council  to  he  heard  on 
both  sides  thereupon.  And  their  Lordships  having  been 
this  day  attended  by  Council  on  both  sides  accordingly, 
and  heard  all  that  they  had  to  offer,  and  having  maturely 
weighed  and  considered  the  whole  of  the  evidence  ad 
duced  by  the  said  Benjamin  Franklin,  Esq.,  upon  which 
the  said  House  of  Representatives  did  come  to  the  seve 
ral  resolves,  which  are  the  foundation  of  their  said  peti 
tion  to  your  Majesty  :  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  take 
leave  to  represent  to  your  Majesty,  that  the  said  House 
of  Representatives  have  by  their  said  petition  taken  upon 
themselves  to  bring  a  general  charge  against  your  Ma 
jesty's  said  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  to 
complain  of  their  conduct,  'As  having  a  natural  and  effi 
cacious  tendency  to  interrupt  and  alienate  the  affections 
of  your  Majesty  from  that  your  loyal  Province — to  de 
stroy  that  harmony  and  good- will  between  Great  Britain 
and  that  Colony,  which  every  honest  subject  would  strive 
to  establish — to  excite  the  resentment  of  the  British  ad 
ministration  against  that  province — to  defeat  the  endea 
vors  of  their  agents  and  friends  to  serve  them  by  a  fair 
representation  of  their  state  of  facts — to  prevent  their 
humble  and  repeated  petitions  from  reaching  the  ear  of 
your  Majesty,  or  having  their  desired  effect ;  and  finally 


PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE   ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.      119 

charging  youv  Majesty's  said  Governor  and  Lieutenant 
Governor  with  having  been  among  the  chief  instruments 
of  introducing  a  fleet  and  an  army  into  that  province,  to 
establish  and  perpetuate  their  plans ;  whereby  your  Ma 
jesty's  said  Governor  and  Lieutenant  Governor  have  been 
not  only  greatly  instrumental  of  disturbing  the  peace  and 
harmony  of  the  government,  and  causing  unnatural  and 
hateful  discords  and  animosities  between  the  several  parts 
of  your  Majesty's  extensive  dominions ;  but  are  justly 
chargeable  with  all  that  corruption  of  morals,  and  all  that 
confusion,  misery,  and  bloodshed,  which  have  been  the 
natural  effects  of  posting  an  army  in  a  populous  town.' 
But  the  Lords  of  the  Committee  cannot  but  express  their 
astonishment,  that  a  charge  of  so  serious  and  extensive  a 
nature  against  the  persons  whom  the  said  House  of 
Representatives  acknowledge  by  their  said  petition  to 
have  heretofore  had  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the 
people,  and  to  have  been  advanced  by  your  Majesty  from 
the  purest  motives  of  rendering  your  subjects  happy,  to 
the  highest  places  of  trust  and  authority  in  that  province, 
should  have  no  other  evidence  to  support  it  but  inflam 
matory  and  precipitate  resolutions,  founded  only  on  cer 
tain  letters,  written  respectively  by  them  (and  all  but 
one  before  they  were  appointed  to  the  posts  they  now 
hold)  in  the  years  1767,  1768,  and  1769,  to  a  gentleman 
then  in  no  office  under  the  government,  in  the  course  of 
familiar  correspondence,  and  in  the  confidence  of  private 
friendship,  and  which  it  was  said  (and  it  was  not  denied 
by  Mr.  Franklin)  were  surreptitiously  obtained  after  his 
death,  and  sent  over  to  America,  and  laid  before  the  As 
sembly  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay ;  and  which  letters 


120    PROCEEDINGS   ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 

appear  to  us  to  contain  nothing  reprehensible  or  unworthy 
of  the  situation  they  were  in  ;  and  we  presume,  that  it 
was  from  this  impropriety,  that  the  Council  did  disclaim 
on  behalf  of  the  Assembly  any  intention  of  bringing  a 
criminal  charge  against  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant 
Governor ;  but  said  that  the  petition  was  founded 
solely  on  the  ground  of  the  Governor  and  Lieutenant 
Governor  being,  as  they  alleged,  now  become  obnox 
ious  to  the  people  of  the  province;  and  that  it  was 
in  this  light  only  that  the  said  petition  was  presented 
to  your  Majesty.  And  there  being  no  other  evidence 
now  produced,  than  the  said  resolutions  and  letters, 
together  with  resolutions  of  a  similar  import  by  the  Coun 
cil  of  the  said  province,  founded,  as  it  was  said,  on  the 
same  letters — 

"  The  Lords  of  the  Committee  do  agree  humbly  to  re 
port,  as  their  opinion  to  your  Majesty,  that  the  said  pe 
tition  is  founded  upon  resolutions,  formed  upon  false  and 
erroneous  allegations,  and  that  the  same  is  groundless, 
vexatious,  and  scandalous,  and  calculated  only  for  the 
seditious  purposes  of  keeping  up  a  spirit  of  clamor  and 
discontent  in  the  said  province.  And  the  Lords  of  the 
Committee  do  further  humbly  report  to  your  Majesty, 
that  nothing  has  been  laid  before  them,  which  does  or 
can,  in  their  opinion,  in  any  manner  or  in  anjr  degree, 
impeach  the  honor,  integrity,  or  conduct  of  the  said  Go 
vernor  or  Lieutenant  Governor;  and  their  Lordships  are 
humbly  of  opinion,  that  the  said  petition  ought  to  be 
dismissed." 

His  Majesty  taking  the  said  report  into  consideration, 
was  pleased,  with  the  advice  of  his  Privy  Council,  to  ap 
prove  thereof;  and  to  order,  that  the  said  petition  of  the 


PROCEEDINGS  ON  THE  ADDRESS  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.   121 

House  of  Representatives  of  the  province  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Bay,  be,  and  it  is  hereby  dismissed  this  Board, 
as  groundless,  vexatious,  and  scandalous,  and  calculated 
only  for  the  seditious  purpose  of  keeping  up  a  spirit  of 
clamor  and  discontent  in  the  said  province. 

G.  CHETWYND. 


16 


THE 

SPEECH 

OF  THE  RIGHT  HONORABLE 

THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM,    &C, 


MY  LORDS  : — After  more  than  six  weeks'  possession  of 
the  papers  now  before  you,  on  a  subject  so  momentous, 
at  a  time  when  the  state  of  this  nation  hangs  on  every 
hour ;  the  Ministry  have  at  length  condescended  to  submit 
to  the  consideration  of  the  House  intelligence  from  Ame 
rica,  with  which  your  Lordships  and  the  public  have  been 
long  and  fully  acquainted. 

The  measures  of  last  year,  my  Lords,  which  have  pro 
duced  the  present  alarming  state  of  America,  were 
founded  upon  misrepresentation— they  were  violent,  pre 
cipitate,  and  vindictive.  The  nation  was  told  that  it  was 
only  a  faction  in  Boston,  which  opposed  all  lawful  govern 
ment ;  that  an  unwarrantable  injury  had  been  done  to 
private  property,  for  which  the  justice  of  Parliament  was 
called  upon,  to  order  reparation  ;  that  the  least  appear 
ance  of  firmness  would  awe  the  Americans  into  submis 
sion,  and  upon  only  passing  the  Rubicon,  we  should  be, 
sine  clade  victor. 


(122) 


SPEECH   OF   THE    EARL   OF    CHATHAM.  123 

That  the  people  might  choose  their  Representatives 
under  the  impression  of  those  misrepresentations,  the 
Parliament  was  precipitately  dissolved.  Thus  the  nation 
was  to  be  rendered  instrumental  in  executing  the  ven 
geance  of  Administration  on  that  injured,  unhappy,  tra 
duced  people. 

But  now,  my  Lords,  we  find,  that  instead  of  suppres 
sing  the  opposition  of  the  faction  at  Boston,  these  mea 
sures  have  spread  it  over  the  whole  continent.  They 
have  united  that  whole  people  by  the  most  indissoluble 
of  all  bands — intolerable  wrongs.  The  just  retribution 
is  an  indiscriminate,  unmerciful  proscription  of  the  inno 
cent  with  the  guilty,  unheard  and  untried.  The  blood 
less  victory  is  an  impotent  general  with  his  dishonored 
army,  trusting  solely  to  the  pick-axe  and  the  spade,  for 
security  against  the  just  indignation  of  an  injured  and 
insulted  people. 

My  Lords,  I  am  happy  that  a  relaxation  of  my  infirmi 
ties  permits  me  to  seize  this  earliest  opportunity  of  offer 
ing  my  poor  advice  to  save  this  unhappy  country,  at  this 
moment  tottering  to  its  ruin.  But,  as  I  have  not  the 
honor  of  access  to  his  Majesty,  I  will  endeavor  to  trans 
mit  to  him  through  the  constitutional  channel  of  this 
House,  my  ideas  on  American  business,  to  rescue  him. 
from  the  misadvice  of  his  present  Ministers.  I  congratu 
late  your  Lordships,  that  that  business  is  at  last  entered 
upon,  by  the  noble  Lord's  (Lord  Dartmouth)  laying  the 
papers  before  you.  As  I  suppose  your  Lordships  are  too 
well  apprised  of  their  contents,  I  hope  I  am  not  prema 
ture  in  submitting  to  you  my  present  motion,  [reads  the 
motion];  I  wish  my  Lords  not  to  lose  a  day  in  this  urging 
present  crisis  :  an  hour  now  lost  in  allaying  the  ferment 


124:  SPEECH    OF    THE    EARL   OF    CHATHAM. 

in  America,  may  produce  years  of  calamity  ;  but  for  my 
own  part,  I  will  not  desert  for  a  moment  the  conduct  of 
this  mighty  business  from  the  first  to  the  last,  unless 
nailed  to  my  bed  by  the  extremity  of  sickness  ;  I' will 
give  it  unremitting  attention  :  I  will  knock  at  the  door  of 
this  sleeping,  or  confounded  Ministry,  and  will  rouse 
them  to  a  sense  of  their  important  danger.  When  I 
state  the  importance  of  the  colonies  to  this  country,  and 
the  magnitude  of  danger  hanging  over  this  country  from 
the  present  plan  of  misad ministration  practiced  against 
them,  I  desire  not  to  be  understood  to  argue  for  a  reci 
procity  of  indulgence  between  England  and  America :  I 
contend  not  for  indulgence,  but  justice,  to  America  ;  and 
I  shall  ever  contend  that  the  Americans  justly  owe  obe 
dience  to  us,  in  a  limited  degree  ;  they  owe  obedience  to 
our  ordinances  of  trade  and  navigation  ;  but  let  the  line 
be  skilfully  drawn  between  the  objects  of  those  ordi 
nances,  and  their  private,  internal  property  :  let  the 
sac-redness  of  their  property  remain  inviolate;  let  it  be 
taxable  only  by  their  own  consent,  given  in  their  provin 
cial  assemblies,  else  it  will  cease  to  be  property.  As  to 
the  metaphysical  refinements  attempting  to  show  that  the 
Americans  are  equally  free  from  obedience  to  commercial 
restraints,  as  from  taxation  for  revenue,  as  being  unre 
presented  here,  I  pronounce  them  futile,  frivolous,  and 
groundless.  Property  is,  in  its  nature,  single  as  an  atom. 
It  is  indivisible,  can  belong  to  one  only,  and  cannot  be 
touched  but  by  his  consent.  The  law  that  attempts  to 
alter  this  disposal  of  it  annihilates  it. 

When  I  urge  this  measure  of  recalling  the  troops  from 
Boston,  I  urge  it  on  this  pressing  principle — that  it  is 
necessarily  preparatory  to  the  restoration  of  your  peace, 


SPEECH    OF    THE    EARL    OF    CHATHAM.  125 

and  the  re-establishment  of  your  prosperity.  It  will  then 
appear  that  you  are  disposed  to  treat  amicably  and  equit 
ably,  and  to  consider,  revise,  and  repeal,  if  it  should  be 
found  necessary,  as  I  affirm  it  will,  those  violent  acts  and 
declarations  which  have  disseminated  confusion  through 
out  your  empire.  Resistance  to  your  acts  was  as  necessary 
as  it  was  just;  and  your  vain  declarations  of  the  omnipo 
tence  of  Parliament,  and  your  imperious  doctrines  of  the 
necessity  of  submission,  will  be  found  equally  impotent 
to  convince  or  enslave  your  fellow-subjects  in  America, 
who  feel  that  tyranny,  whether  ambitioned  by  an  indi 
vidual  part  of  the  Legislature,  or  by  the  bodies  which 
compose  it,  is  equally  intolerable  to  British  principles. 

As  to  the  means  of  enforcing  this  thraldom,  they  are 
found  to  be  as  ridiculous  and  weak  in  practice,  as  they 
were  unjust  in  principle.  Indeed  I  cannot  but  feel  with 
the  most  anxious  sensibility,  for  the  situation  of  General 
Gage  and  the  troops  under  his  command  ;  thinking  him, 
as  I  do,  a  man  of  humanity  and  understanding,  and  en 
tertaining,  as  I  ever  shall,  the  highest  respect,  the  warmest 
love,  for  the  British  troops.  Their  situation  is  truly 
unworthy,  pent  up,  pining  in  inglorious  inactivity.  They 
are  an  army  of  impotence.  You  may  call  them  an  army 
of  safety  and  of  guard  ;  but  they  are  in  truth  an  army  of 
impotence  and  contempt — and  to  render  the  folly  equal 
to  the  disgrace,  they  are  an  army  of  irritation.  I  do  not 
mean  to  censure  the  inactivity  of  the  troops.  It  is  a  pru 
dent  and  a  necessary  inaction.  But  it  is  a  miserable 
condition,  where  disgrace  is  prudence  ;  and  \vhere  it  is 
necessary  to  be  contemptible.  This  tameness,  however 
disgraceful,  ought  not  to  be  blamed,  as  I  am  surprised  to 
hear  is  done  by  these  Ministers.  The  first  drop  of  blood, 


126  SPEECH    OF    THE    EARL    OF    CHATHAM. 

shed  in  a  civil  and  unnatural  war,  would  be  an  immedica- 
bile  vul.nus.  It  would  entail  hatred  and  contention  be 
tween  the  two  people,  from  generation  to  generation. 
Woe  be  to  him  who  sheds  the  first — the  unexpiable — 
drop  of  blood  in  an  impious  war,  with  a  people  contend 
ing  in  the  great  cause  of  public  liberty.  1  will  tell  you 
plainly,  my  Lords,  no  son  of  mine,  nor  any  one  over 
whom  I  have  influence,  shall  ever  draw  his  sword  upon 
his  fellow  subjects. 

I  therefore  urge  and  conjure  your  Lordships  immedi 
ately  to  adopt  this  conciliatory  measure.  I  will  pledge 
myself  for  its  immediately  producing  conciliatory  effects, 
from  its  being  well  timed.  But  if  you  delay  till  your 
vain  hope  of  triumphantly  dictating  the  terms  shall  be 
accomplished,  you  delay  forever.  And  even  admitting 
that  this  hope,  which  in  truth  is  desperate,  should  be  ac 
complished,  what  will  you  gain  by  a  victorious  imposition 
of  amity  ?  You  will  be  untrusted  and  unthanked.  Adopt 
then  the  grace,  while  you  have  the  opportunity  of  recon 
cilement,  or  at  least  prepare  the  way  ;  allay  the  ferment 
prevailing  in  America,  by  removing  the  obnoxious  hostile 
cause.  Obnoxious  and  unserviceable  ;  for  their  merit 
can  be  only  inaction.  "  Non  dimicare  est  vincere." 
Their  victory  can  never  be  by  exertions.  Their  force 
would  be  most  disproportionately  exerted,  againsta  brave, 
generous,  and  united  people;  with  arms  in  their  hands 
and  courage  in  their  hearts;  three  millions  of  people,  the 
genuine  descendants  of  a  valiant  and  pious  ancestry, 
driven  to  these  deserts  by  the  narrow  maxims  of  a  su 
perstitious  tyranny.  And  is  the  spirit  of  tyrannous  per 
secution  never  to  be  appeased?  Are  the  brave  sons  of 
those  brave  forefathers  to  inherit  their  sufferings,  as  they 


SPEECH   OP    THE    EARL    OF    CHATHAM.  127 

have  inherited  their  virtues  ?  Are  they  to  sustain  the 
inflictions  of  the  most  oppressive  and  unexampled  se 
verity,  beyond  the  accounts  of  history  or  the  description 
of  poetry?  "  Rhadamanthus  habet  durissima  regna, 
Castigatque  auditque"  So  says  the  wisest  statesman  and 
politician.  But  the  Bostonians  have  been  condemned  un 
heard.  The  indiscriminating  hand  of  vengeance  has 
lumped  together  innocent  and  guilty  :  with  all  the  for 
malities  of  hostility,  has  blocked  up  the  town,  and  re 
duced  to  beggary  and  famine  30,000  inhabitants.  But 
his  Majesty  is  advised  that  the  union  of  America  cannot 
last.  Ministers  have  more  eyes  than  I,  and  should  have 
more  ears,  but  from  all  the  information  I  have  been  able 
to  procure,  I  can  pronounce  it  a  union  solid,  permanent, 
and  effectual.  Ministers  may  satisfy  themselves  and  de 
lude  the  public  with  the  reports  of  what  they  call  com 
mercial  bodies  in  America.  They  are  not  commercial. 
They  are  your  packers  and  factors ;  they  live  upon  nothing, 
for  I  call  commission  nothing;  I  mean  the  ministerial 
authority  for  their  American  intelligence  —  the  runners 
of  government,  who  are  paid  for  their  intelligence.  But 
these  are  not  the  men,  nor  this  the  influence  to  be  con 
sidered  in  America,  when  we  estimate  the  firmness  of 
their  union.  Even  to  extend  the  question,  and  to  take 
in  the  really  mercantile  circle,  will  be  totally  inadequate 
to  the  consideration.  Trade  indeed  increases  the  wealth 
and  glory  of  a  country;  but  its  real  strength  and  stamina 
are  to  be  looked  for  among  the  cultivators  of  the  land. 
In  their  simplicity  of  life  is  found  the  simplicity  of  vir 
tue,  the  integrity  and  courage  of  freedom.  Those  true 
genuine  sons  of  the  earth  are  invincible  ;  and  they  sur 
round  and  hern  in  the  mercantile  bodies ;  even  if  those 


128  SPEECH    OF   THE    EARL    OF    CHATHAM. 

bodies,  which  supposition  I  totally  disclaim,  could  be  sup 
posed  disaffected  to  the  cause  of  liberty.      Of  this  general 
spirit  existing  in  the   American   nation,  for   so  1  wish  to 
distinguish   the   real    and    genuine  Americans  from  the 
pseudo-traders  I   have  described  :  of  this   spirit  of  inde 
pendence    animating  the  nation  of  America,  I  have  the 
most  authentic  information.     It  is  not  new  among  them; 
it  is,  and  ever  has  been,  their  established  principle,  their 
confirmed    persuasion  ;  it  is  their  nature  and  their  doc 
trine.     I  remember  some  years  ago  when  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act  was  in  agitation,  conversing  in  a  friendly 
confidence  with  a  person  of  undoubted  respect  and  authen 
ticity  on  this  subject;  and  he  assured  me  with  a  certainty 
which  his  judgment  and  opportunity  gave  him,  that  these 
were    the  prevalent  and    steady  principles   of  America  . 
that  you   might    destroy  their   towns,  and  cut  them  off 
from  the  superfluities,  perhaps  the  conveniences  of  life, 
but  that  they  were  prepared  to  despise  your  power,  and 
would  not  lament  their  loss,  whilst  they  hud— what,  my 
Lords  ?— their  woods  and  liberty.     The  name  of  my  au 
thority,  if  I  am  called  upon,  will  authenticate  the  opinion 
irrefragably. 

If  illegal  violences  have  been,  as  it  is  said,  committed 
in  America,  prepare  the  way,  open  a  door  of  possibility, 
for  acknowledgment  and  satisfaction.  But  proceed  not 
to  such  coercion,  such  proscription:  cease  your  indis 
criminate  inflictions,  amerce  not  thirty  thousand,  oppress 
not  three  millions,  for  the  faults  of  forty  or  fifty.  Such 
severity  of  injustice  must  forever  render  incurable  the 
wounds  you  have  already  given  your  Colonies  ;  you  irri 
tate  them  to  unappeasable  rancor.  What  though  you 
march  from  town  to  town,  and  from  province  to  province? 


SPEECH   OF   THE    EARL   OF   CHATHAM.  129 

Though  you  should  be  able  to  force  a  temporary  and  local 
submission,  which  I  only  suppose,  not  admit,  how  shall 
you  be  able  to  secure  the  obedience  of  the  country  you 
leave  behind  you  in  your  progress  ?  To  grasp  the  do 
minion  of  1800  miles  of  continent,  populous  in  valor, 
liberty,  and  resistance  ?  This  resistance  to  your  arbitrary 
system  of  taxation  might  have  been  foreseen  ;  it  was  ob 
vious  from  the  nature  of  things  and  of  mankind  ;  and 
above  all,  from  the  Whiggish  spirit  flourishing  in  that 
country.  The  spirit  which  now  resists  your  taxation  in 
America,  is  the  same  which  formerly  opposed,  and  with 
success  opposed,  loans,  benevolences,  and  ship-money  in 
England — the  same  spirit  which  called  all  England  on  its 
legs,  and  by  the  Bill  of  Rights  vindicated  the  English 
Constitution — the  same  spirit  which  established  the  great 
fundamental  and  essential  maxim  of  your  liberties,  that 
no  subject  shall  be  taxed,  but  ~by  his  own  consent.  If  your 
Lordships  will  turn  to  the  politics  of  those  times,  you  will 
see  the  attempts  of  the  Lords  to  poison  this  inestimable 
benefit  of  the  Bill,  by  an  insidious  proviso  :  you  will  see 
their  attempts  defeated,  in  their  conference  with  the  Com 
mons,  by  the  decisive  arguments  of  the  ascertainers  and 
rnaintainers  of  our  liberty :  you  will  see  the  thin,  incon 
clusive,  and  fallacious  stuff  of  those  enemies  to  freedom, 
contrasted  with  the  sound  and  solid  reasoning  of  Serjeant 
Glanville  and  the  rest,  those  great  and  learned  men  who 
adorned  and  enlightened  this  country,  and  placed  her  se 
curity  on  the  summit  of  justice  and  freedom.  And 
whilst  I  am  on  my  legs,  and  thus  do  justice  to  the  memory 
of  those  great  men,  I  must  also  justify  the  merit  of  the 
living  by  declaring  my  firm  and  fixed  opinion,  that  such 

a  man  exists  this  day,  [looking  towards  Lord   Camden]. 
17 


130  SPEECH    OF    THE    EARL   OF    CHATHAM. 

This  glorious  spirit  of  Whiggism  animates  three  millions 
in  America,  who  prefer  poverty  with  liberty,  to  golden 
chains  and  sordid  affluence  ;  and  who  will  die  in  defence 
of  their  rights,  as  men — as  freemen.  What  shall  oppose 
this  spirit,  aided  by  the  congenial  flame  glowing  in  the 
breast  of  every  Whig  in  England,  to  the  amount,  I  hope, 
of  at  least  double  the  American  numbers?  Ireland  they 
have  to  a  man.  In  that  country,  joined  as  it  is  with  the 
cause  of  the  Colonies,  and  placed  at  their  head,  the  dis 
tinction  I  contend  for,  is  and  must  be  observed.  This 
country  superintends  and  controls  their  trade  and  naviga 
tion  ;  but  they  tax  themselves.  And  this  distinction  be 
tween  external  and  internal  control,  is  sacred  and  insur 
mountable  ;  it  is  involved  in  the  abstract  nature  of  things. 
Property  is  private,  individual,  absolute.  Trade  is  an 
extended  and  complicated  consideration ;  it  reaches  as 
far  as  ships  can  sail,  or  winds  can  blow.  It  is  a  great 
and  various  machine.  To  regulate  the  numberless  move 
ments  of  its  several  parts,  and  combine  them  into  effect 
for  the  good  of  the  whole,  requires  the  superintending 
wisdom  and  energy  of  the  supreme  power  in  the  empire. 
But  this  supreme  power  has  no  effect  towards  internal 
taxation,  for  it  does  not  exist  in  that  relation.  There  is 
no  such  thing,  no  such  idea  in  this  Constitution,  as  a  su 
preme  power  operating  upon  property. 

Let  this  distinction  then  remain  forever  ascertained. 
Taxation  is  theirs,  commercial  regulation  is  ours.  As  an 
American,  I  would  recognize  to  England  her  supreme 
right  of  regulating  commerce  and  navigation.  As  an 
Englishman  by  birth  and  principle,  I  recognize  to  the 
Americans  their  supreme  unalienable  right  in  their  pro 
perty  ;  a  right  which  they  are  justified  in  the  defence  of, 


SPEECH    OF    THE    EARL   OF    CHATHAM.  131 

to  the  last  extremity.  To  maintain  this  principle  is  the 
common  cause  of  the  Whigs  on  the  other  side  of  the  At 
lantic,  and  on  this.  'Tis  liberty,  to  liberty  engaged,  that 
they  will  defend  themselves,  their  families,  and  their 
country.  In  this  great  cause  they  are  immovably  allied. 
It  is  the  alliance  of  God  and  nature — immutable,  eternal, 
fixed  as  the  firmament  of  heaven  !  To  such  united  force, 
what  force  shall  be  opposed  ?  What,  my  Lords  ;  a  few 
regiments  in  America,  and  seventeen  or  eighteen  thousand 
men  at  home  !  The  idea  is  too  ridiculous  to  take  up  ;*, 
moment  of  your  Lordships'  time  ;  nor  can  such  a  national 
principled  union  be  resisted  by  the  tricks  of  office  or  minis 
terial  manoeuvres.  Laying  papers  on  your  tables,  or 
counting  noses  on  a  division,  will  not  avert  or  postpone 
the  hour  of  danger.  It  must  arrive,  my  Lords,  unless 
these  fatal  acts  are  done  away ;  it  must  arrive  in  all  its 
horrors  :  and  then  these  boastful  Ministers,  'spite  of  all 
their  confidence  and  all  their  manoeuvres,  shall  be  forced 
to  hide  their  heads.  But  it  is  not  repealing  this  Act  of 
Parliament,  or  that  Act  of  Parliament, — it  is  not  repeal 
ing  a  piece  of  parchment  that  can  restore  America  to  your 
bosom.  You  must  repeal  her  fears  and  her  resentments, 
and  you  may  then  hope  for  her  love  and  gratitude.  But 
now  insulted  with  an  armed  force  posted  in  Boston,  irri 
tated  with  an  hostile  array  before  her  eyes,  her  conces 
sions,  if  you  could  force  them,  would  be  suspicious  and 
insecure  :  they  will  be  irato  animo :  they  will  not  be  the 
sound,  honorable  pactions  of  freemen  :  they  will  be  the 
dictates  of  fear  and  the  extortions  of  force.  But  it  is 
more  than  evident  that  you  cannot  force  them,  principled 
and  united  as  they  are,  to  your  unworthy  terms  of  sub 
mission.  It  is  impossible.  And  when  I  hear  General 


132  SPEECH   OF   THE    EARL   OF    CHATHAM. 

Gage  censured  for  inactivity,  I  must  retort  with  indigna 
tion  on  those  whose  intemperate  measures  and  improvi 
dent  councils  have  betrayed  him  into  his  present  situa 
tion.  His  situation  reminds  me,  my  Lords,  of  the  answer 
of  a  French  General  in  the  civil  wars  of  France,  Mon 
sieur  Turenne,  I  think.  The  Queen  said  to  him  with 
some  peevishness,  "  I  observe  that  you  were  often  very 
near  the  Prince  during  the  campaign,  why  did  you  not 
take  him  ?"  The  Mareschal  replied  with  great  coolness, 
"  J'  avois  grand  peur,  qui  Monsieur  le  Prince  ne  me 
pris," — I  was  very  much  afraid  the  Prince  would  take 
me. 

When  your  Lordships  look  at  the  papers  transmitted 
us  from  America,  when  you  consider  their  decency,  firm 
ness,  and  wisdom,  you  cannot  but  respect  their  cause,  and 
wish  to  make  it  your  own.  For  myself  I  must  declare  and 
avow  that  in  all  my  reading  and  observation,  and  it  has 
been  my  favorite  study — I  have  read  Thucydides,  and 
have  studied  and  admired  the  master  states  of  the  world, 
— that  for  solidity  and  reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and 
wisdom  of  conclusion,  under  such  a  complication  of  dif 
ferent  circumstances,  no  nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand 
in  preference  to  the  general  Congress  at  Philadelphia.  I 
trust  it  is  obvious  to  your  Lordships,  that  all  attempts  to 
impose  servitude  on  such  men,  to  establish  despotism  over 
such  a  mighty  continental  nation — must  be  vain — must 
be  fatal.  We  shall  be  forced  ultimately  to  retract,  whilst 
we  can,  not  when  we  must.  I  say  we  must  necessarily 
undo  these  violent  and  oppressive  acts  : — they  must  be 
repealed — you  will  repeal  them  :  I  pledge  myself  for  it 
you  will  in  the  end  repeal  them  :  I  stake  my  reputation 


SPEECH   OF   THE   EARL   OF   CHATHAM.  133 

on  it :  I  will  consent  to  be  taken  for  an  idiot  if  they  are 
not  finally  repealed.  Avoid  then  this  humiliating,  dis 
graceful  necessity.  With  a  dignity  becoming  your  ex 
alted  situation,  make  the  first  advances  to  concord,  to 
peace  and  happiness,  for  that  is  your  true  dignity,  to  act 
with  prudence  and  with  justice.  That  you  should  first 
concede  is  obvious  from  sound  and  rational  policy.  Con 
cession  comes  with  better  grace  and  more  salutary  effect 
from  the  superior  power.  It  reconciles  superiority  of 
power  with  the  feelings  of  men  ;  and  establishes  solid 
confidence  in  the  foundation  of  affection  and  gratitude. 
So  thought  the  wisest  poet  and  perhaps  the  wisest  man 
in  political  sagacity,  the  friend  of  Maecenas,  and  the  eulo 
gist  of  Augustus.  To  him,  the  adopted  son  and  successor 
of  the  first  Csesar — to  him,  the  master  of  the  world,  he 
wisely  urged  this  conduct  of  prudence  and  dignity. 

Tuque  prior,  &c.  VIRGIL. 

Every  motive  therefore  of  justice  and  of  policy,  of 
dignity  and  of  prudence,  urges  you  to  allay  the  ferment 
in  America,  by  a  removal  of  your  troops  from  Boston, 
by  a  repeal  of  your  Acts  of  Parliament,  and  by  demon 
stration  of  amicable  dispositions  towards  your  Colonies. 
On  the  other  hand,  'every  danger  and  every  hazard  im 
pend  to  deter  you  from  perseverance  in  your  present 
ruinous  measures  :  foreign  war  hanging  over  your  heads 
by  a  slight  and  brittle  thread  :  France  and  Spain  watch 
ing  your  conduct,  and  waiting  for  the  maturity  of  your 
errors  ;  with  a  vigilant  eye  to  America  and  the  temper  of 
your  Colonies,  more  than  to  their  own  concerns,  be  they 
what  they  may. 


134  SPEECH    OF    THE    EARL    OF    CHATHAM. 

To  conclude,  my  Lords,  if  the  Ministers  thus  perse 
vere  in  misadvising  and  misleading  the  King,  I  will  not  % 
say  that  they  can  alienate  his  subjects  from  his  crown, 
but  I  will  affirm  that  they  will  make  the  crown  not  worth 
his  wearing  :  I  shall  not  say  that  the  King  is  betrayed, 
but  I  will  pronounce  that  the  kingdom  is  undone. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

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